NGX All Share Index (NGX ASI) experienced a 0.62% week-to-date decline, closing at 109,028.62 points compared to 109,710.35 points last week. Market activity was predominantly bearish, with only a brief rebound on May 20. Key sell-offs included NB (-5.10%), OANDO (-3.00%), MTNN (-1.82%), and NNFM (-9.97%), as investors repositioned ahead of month-end. Despite the downward pressure on the index, overall investor wealth increased by N130.05 bn, driven by a rise in market capitalisation to N68.75trn. This growth was largely supported by UBA’s successful rights issue listing of 6.83bn ordinary shares. Consequently, the year to date was brought to 5.93%.
Volume fell by 61.29%, with TANTALIZER dominating trades at 145mn units (22.76% of total volume), reflecting retail speculative plays. FIDELITYBK followed closely with 85.5mn units, reinforcing banking sector liquidity. Value traded dipped by 5.11%, with MTNN (N4.29bn) and NB (N2.57bn) leading the value chart. Despite reduced trades and volume, market capitalization rose 0.19% DTD, signalling selective inflows into large-cap stocks. 30 advancers vs. 22 decliners raised breadth to 1.36x (up from 0.67x). This divergence where breadth and volume improve despite index decline often signals underlying accumulation and could foreshadow a short-term rebound, particularly if macro signals stabilizes.
The NASD Securities Index (NSI) rose by 0.97% to 3,188.8 points, driven by notable price appreciations in key tickers like CSCS (+8.46%), FrieslandCampina WAMCO (+5.53%), and 11 PLC (+2.11%). These gains reflect renewed investor confidence in fundamentally strong, dividend-paying companies within the OTC space. While total trade volume dropped by 14.80% to 385,519 units, the value of transactions skyrocketed by 892.24% to N14.78mn, indicating significant high-value block trades. The 105.88% jump in executed deals further signals a broadened participation and increased liquidity concentration in premium-tier equities.