Nigerian Bank Nigeria Diamond Bank – Activities Stagnate At NSE

Source Leadership Nigerian: Nkiruka Anene, 16 February 2010

Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday witnessed stagnation owing to investors’ whittled interest, a development which market analysts attributed to institutional investors’ withdrawal after the past weeks’ bullish activities.

At the close of transactions, major performing indices inched up marginally, while the gains and losses by listed companies ended at par.

Specifically, market capitalisation gained N1 billion to close at N5.56 trillion from the previous N5.55 trillion, representing 0.02 per cent increase, while the All- share index rose to 23,064.29 points from the previous 23,061.41 points, representing 0.01 per cent increase.

Analysts said the trend in the market was as a result of lack of any major effort by listed companies to drive market activities.

On the impact of foreign institutional investors on the market, they explained that the market was witnessing the absence of foreign investors who left the market after exhausting funds for investment in the market at a projected period.

They maintained that unless there is a major increase in demand for equities by investors, the market may not witness the bullish trend it has experienced.

31 stocks appreciated in price as against 38 that depreciated in price with Flourmill Nigeria Plc leading the gainers with N2.18k to close at N45.78k per share, followed by UACN with 99k increase to close at N41.99k per share.

IBTC garnered 41k to close at N8.70k; FCMB gained 39k to close at N9.65k, while Eternaoil that was the least on top the five gainers’ table, appreciated by 30k to close at N6.30k per share.

On the other hand, Lafarge WAPCO led the losers’ table with 80k to close at N34.20k per share, followed by RT Briscoe with 29k loss to close at N5.69k. Diamond bank trailed behind with 28k loss to close at N8.62k; MAY&Baker lost 26k to close at N4.97k, while Ecobank went down by 24k to close at N4.73k per share.

Activities on the sectoral level was also weakened a bit with volume of transactions slipping to 318.5 million shares valued at N2.01 billion exchanged in 7,368 deals, as against 357.2 million shares worth N2.09 billion done in 6,277 deals.

The banking sub-sector was the most active in volume terms as investors bought 176.6 million shares worth N1.3 billion exchanged in 3,730 deals, followed by 58.45 million shares valued at N55.17 million in 593 deals.

Nigerian Bank Nigeria Diamond Bank, Ecobank, FCMB First City Monument Bank, Nigerian Stock Exchange