In August, the Nigerian equity market faced significant challenges, with investors experiencing a loss of N36.04 billion due to a series of market dips.
The market capitalization declined slightly by 0.05%, ending the month at N55.48 trillion, down from N55.51 trillion at the end of July.
Throughout August, the all-share index and market capitalization exhibited fluctuating performance. Initially, both increased by 0.87% in the first week but then fell by 1.51% in the second week.
The third week saw an additional 1.16% decline, with a modest recovery of 0.63% in the final week. Overall, the market experienced a -1.22% decline by month-end.
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The financial services sector led trading activities, dominating the market by volume and value over the four weeks.
In the first week, 2.68 billion shares were traded, valued at N49.02 billion across 47,451 transactions. The second week saw a slight decrease in trading activity, with 2.03 billion shares worth N42.16 billion traded in 45,157 deals.
The third week experienced a surge, with 5.64 billion shares traded valued at N33.05 billion in 42,006 transactions, while the final week saw 2.82 billion shares traded worth N53.04 billion across 50,488 deals.
For the month of August, the total trading volume was 13.17 billion shares valued at N177.27 billion through 185,102 transactions. The financial services industry traded the majority of these shares, with 10.19 billion shares worth N91.34 billion exchanged in 82,600 deals.
The oil and gas sector followed, trading 974.685 million shares valued at N33.723 billion across 26,014 deals. The ICT and services sectors recorded a combined 516.275 million shares valued at N4.703 billion in 12,775 deals, demonstrating moderate performance compared to other sectors.
By the end of the month, 56 equities appreciated in value, 26 depreciated, and 69 remained unchanged. Notably, Oando saw a substantial price increase of 60.71%, with its shares rising from N47.85 to N76.90. Conversely, BUA Foods and Academy Press were among the notable decliners.
BUA Foods’ share price fell from N379 to N373.50 following a dividend payout, while Academy Press’s shares decreased from N3.02 to N2.92 after its own dividend payout.
Globally, the equities market also experienced volatility in August due to shifting sentiments towards major tech stocks, recession fears in the U.S., and an unexpected 0.25% rate hike by the Bank of Japan, which triggered significant sell-offs in the early part of the month.
However, the MSCI World Equity Index showed resilience, advancing by 1.8% in the latter half of the month, marking its fourth consecutive month of gains.
Afrinvest noted, “In August, global equity markets were turbulent due to shifting sentiments on big-tech stocks, recession fears in the U.S., and an unexpected 0.25% rate hike by the Bank of Japan, leading to major sell-offs in the first half of the month.
Nonetheless, the MSCI World Equity Index demonstrated resilience by advancing 1.8% in the latter half, achieving its fourth consecutive month of gains.”
