The AFEX Commodities Index (ACI) ended its 8week bullish trend, closing the reporting week with a 2.03% decline (W-o-W). This is attributable to the decline in the prices of most of the commodities covered by the index particularly; soybean, paddy rice and sorghum.
The AFEX Export Index (AEI) closed the reporting week with a positive performance. increasing by 1.749% as against the previous week as the decline in the prices of cocoa was outweighed by the increase in the price of ginger on the exchange.
Total volume traded on the exchange during the week stood at 262,398 contracts beng a 10% increase from the voume traded last week. As grains accounted for about c.98% of the total trades for the week. Volume traded of export commodities for the reporting week increased by 214% closing the week with 3,374 executed contracts for the week.
For the reporting week most commodities traded on the exchange experienced a decline in prices. these includes soybean, sorghum, paddy rice, and cocoa as they all decline by 8.96%. 3.97%. 1.08% and 0.89% (W-o-W) respectively. However, ginger ended the week with a surge in prices as the commodities increased by 4.56% (W-o-W) on the last trading day of the week closing the week at NGN91.653/contract. Sesame and maize on the other hand experienced marginal uptick in prices increasing by 1.68% and 0.38% (W-o-W) respectively.
Local indicative open market survey prices for soybean, Paddy rice and sorghum were lower than Exchange traded prices. However, players on the Exchange priced maize, cocoa, ginger and sesame higher during the week under review.
Week-on-Week in the open market. maize prices declined by 1.58%, while cocoa and sesame remained unchanged. On the other hand, ginger, paddy rice. soybean and sorghum prices increased by 17.88%. 6.51%. 298% and 1.99% (W-oW) respectively.
Market Talk
Investors in the Nigerian stock market recorded a total loss of N1.37tn in February as market capitalisation tumbled below N21tn amid profit-taking as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share index declined by 0.96% (W-o-W) while the AEI increased by 1.79% for the reporting week emphasizing the importance of commodities as a must add to one’s porifolio.