The market closed the year 2020 on a bullish note with well over 50% return weathering the storm that plagued businesses due to covid-19 pandemic. Entering into 2021, the market has been upbeat occasioned by retention of key lending rates by CBN, forward looking oil price, discovery of covid-19 vaccine and Q4’20 earnings expectation.
Year to date, the market has returned 5.32% with the All Share Index at 42,412.66 points as against 40,270.72 points at the close of year 2020. The Market Capitalisation has grown by 5.37% to N22.187 trillion from N21.057 trillion at the close of year 2020.
In the week that just ended, the All Share Index and Market Capitalization both appreciated by 3.44% to close the week at 42,412.66 and N22.187 trillion respectively. A total turnover of 2.570 billion shares worth N27.884 billion in 31,466 deals were traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 4.288 billion shares valued at N25.989 billion that exchanged hands last week in 32,849 deals. The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 1.497 billion shares valued at N12.695 billion traded in 14,324 deals; thus contributing 58.22% and 45.53% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 363.263 million shares worth N821.428 million in 1,722 deals. The third place was Consumer Goods Industry, with a turnover of 220.759 million shares worth N3.953 billion in 5,952 deals.
In the month of January, Seventy Eight (78) equities appreciated in price while Twenty-two (22) equities depreciated in price.
Champion Breweries emerged top among other gainers with 261.63% growth, closing the month of January at N3.11 from N0.86 at the beginning of the year.
Livestock Feeds is second on the gainers’ list as it gained 85.61% year to date. The price moved from N1.39 to N2.58. With the 52 weeks high of N3.08, the stock is trading 16.23% away from its year high of N3.08.
Linkage Assurance is third on the gainers’ list with 73.08% growth. The price of the stock grew to N0.90 from N0.52 at the beginning of the year. It is trading at year high of N0.90.
Growth is observed in the share prices of heavy weight stocks like Airtel, MTN and BUA Cement as the gained 9.18%, 6.53% and 2.13% respectively.
Blue Chip stocks like Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, FBNH and UBA among others also grew their share prices by 10.06%, 9.68%, 6.65%, 6.29% and 4.62% respectively.