Nigerian Bank Nigeria Nigeria Stock Exchange – Stock Market Closes 2009 Transactions On A Bullish Note

Source: Femi Adekoya, Guardian, January 4, 2010

Despite the bearish trend which trailed the equities sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the better part of last week, trading activities in the sector closed the week and year on a bullish note as transactions volume at the Over-the-Counter bond market dropped by 78.8 per cent.

At the close of transactions last week Thursday, a turnover of 15.56 million units of bonds worth N16.7 billion changed hands, in contrast to a total of 73.56 million units valued at N79.8 billion exchanged in the previous week. For the equities sector, investors traded 1.4 billion shares worth N6.6 billion last week, in contrast to a total of 1.3 billion shares valued at N11.01 billion exchanged in the preceding week. The volume recorded last week was partly buoyed by a total of 43,800 units of Crusader (Nig) Plc Unsecured Convertible bond worth N43.8 million exchanged during the week.

Although, there were no transactions in the Federal Government Development Stocks, State Government Bonds and Preference Stocks sectors, the 4th FGN Bond 2012 Series 5 was the most active bond during the week with a traded volume of 3.1 million units valued at N3.2 billion, followed by the 4th FGN Bond 2017 Series 8 with 3 million units valued at N3.2 billion.

With the price gains outweighing price losses, corporate performance indicators of the Exchange, rose by 1.07 per cent, as the All-Share Index which opened the week at 20,607.05 points closed higher at 20,827.17 points, while market capitalization rose by N53 billion from N4.936 trillion on Monday to N4.989 trillion on Thursday. Furthermore, the NSE-30 Index appreciated by two per cent to close at 827.99 points for the week, while three of the four sectoral indices appreciated. For instance, the NSE Food/Beverages Index appreciated by 2.4 per cent to close at 526.71 points, while the NSE banking Index appreciated by 2.1 per cent to close at 339.32 points.

Similarly, the NSE Insurance Index appreciated by 0.5 per cent to close at 249.01 points, while the NSE Oil/Gas Index depreciated by 0.86 per cent to close at 288.06 points. On the week’s price movement chart, Nigeria Breweries Plc led the bulls, up by 302 kobo to close at N53.02 per share, followed by Nigerian Bottling Company Plc with 199 kobo to close at N21.42 per share, while Dangote Flour Mills added 122 kobo to close at N9.93 per share.

Furthermore, Lafarge WAPCO Plc, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc all added 120 kobo, 104 kobo, 81 kobo, 58 kobo and 39 kobo each to close at N30.00, N21.85, N13.60, N6.00, and N15.10 respectively.

On the other hand, Total Nigeria Plc led 54 other stocks to suffer price depreciation with a loss of 260 kobo to close at N149.00 per share, followed by Alumaco Plc with 145 kobo to close at N27.71 per share, while Conoil Plc lost 145 kobo to close at N27.63 per share.

Similarly, UAC Nigeria Property Development Company Plc, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Eterna Oil and Gas Plc, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc all shed 114 kobo, 100 kobo, 81 kobo, 55 kobo, 55 kobo and 51 kobo each to close at N19.86, N36.00, N4.98, N10.63, N10.49, N18.50 respectively.

A review of activities in the equities sector showed that the banking sub-sector was the most active in volume terms during the week, as investors traded 540.5 million shares worth N3.71 billion, followed by the insurance sub-sector with a turnover of 437.52 million shares valued at N321.01million, while the food/beverages and tobacco sub-sector exchanged 50.6 million shares worth N533.8 million.

Further analysis of activities in the sub-sectors showed that the volume in the banking sub-sector was largely driven by activity in the shares of United Bank for Africa Plc and FinBank Plc. Trading in the shares of the two Banks accounted for 208.52 million shares, representing 38.6 per cent of the sub-sector’s turnover.

For the insurance sub-sector, the volume was boosted by activity in the shares of Investment and Allied Assurance Plc and Equity Assurance Plc. The two companies accounted for 261.3 million shares of the sub-sector’s volume.

Nigerian Bank Nigeria Nigeria Stock Exchange, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc