Stock Market Sheds 4% from January to Date

Trading floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange

Kunle Aderinokun

Trading activities on the floors of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) closed last Friday with the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) plunging 3.99 per cent year to date.

The stock market had been posting rather unimpressive outing since the beginning of the year, culminating in a negative year-to-date return and all but two indices closing in the red at the weekend. A year-to-date return is a return, which extends from the beginning of the year.

As at the end of trading last Friday, the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) and market capitalisation shed 2 per cent and 1.84 per cent, closing the market at 25,802.54 and N8.892 trillion, respectively.

The only two of the exchange’s 12 indices that moved up namely, NSE Premium Index and NSE Industrial Goods Indices, appreciated by 0.15 per cent and 4.37 per cent respectively.

While a total of 1.153 billion shares worth N8.032 billion were traded in 12,783 deals in the week under review, it represented a significant drop in value when compared to a total of 990.584 million shares worth N18.823 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 14,917 deals.

A breakdown showed that the Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 841.221 million shares valued at N3.065 billion traded in 7,102 deals; thus contributing 72.93 per cent and 38.16 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Services Industry followed with 91.826 million shares worth N139.497 million in 265 deals. The third place was occupied by Industrial Goods Industry with a turnover of 67.010 million shares worth N247.141 million in 510 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely, Continental Reinsurance Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and Medview Airline Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 381.262 million shares worth N788.588 million in 1,008 deals, contributing 33.05 per cent and 9.82 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

As for the Friday trading, investors traded 144.61 million shares worth N1.22 billion, which translated to a decrease of 11.51 per cent from the previous day’s trading value. The bears (losers) overran the bulls (gainers) on this particular trading day. Specifically 22 companies dropped in the share prices compared to eight that gained. The loss in the market was driven mainly by: UACN (-4.94 per cent, N15.20), Nestle (-2.86 per cent, N680.00), GTBank (-2.46 per cent, N23.02), Nigerian Breweries (-1.06 per cent, N133.11), FBNH (-0.85 per cent, N3.50), UBA (-0.40 per cent, N5.00), Access Bank (-0.29 per cent, N6.80), Zenith Bank (-0.26 per cent, N15.56), Presco (-0.18 per cent, N44.12), and Forte Oil (-0.11 per cent, N61.00).

Meanwhile, top 10 stockbrokers traded1,490,748,430 shares on the floors in the last one week, which ended on Friday. The amount represented 64.62 per cent of the total volume of shares traded on the exchange in the review week.

Analysis shows that Cordros Securities Limited topped the table of 10 stockbrokers by volume with 412,941,306 shares representing 17.90 per cent of the market volume; Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited followed with 192,590,002 shares ( 8.35 per cent), Trust Yields Securities Ltd with 158,491,304 shares (6.87 per cent) and ImperiaI Asset Managers Limited 148,867,572 shares (6.45 per cent) occupied the third and fourth positions respectively on the table as well as Rencap Securities (Nig) Limited with 129,892,904 shares (5.63 per cent) on the fifth position.

The remaining five brokers were in the following order: ARM Securities Limited 105,739,186 shares (4.58 per cent); Meristem Stockbrokers Limited 104,220,332 shares (4.52 per cent); Cardinalstone Securities Limited 90,063,083 shares (3.90 per cent); APT Securities and Funds 81,550,963 shares (3.54 per cent) and Fundvine Capital & Securities Limited 66,391,778 shares(2.88 per cent).

Looking at trading in terms of value, top 10 stockbrokers transacted deals worth N11,222,495,451.17 representing 71.19 per cent of the total value of trading for the week.

Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, which was on top of the table transacted N2,982,359,879.72, accounting for 18.92 per cent of the total value for the week. Following, Bestworth Assets & Trust Ltd recorded N1,966,208,572.50, which translated to 12.47 per cent of the total value. Whereas Rencap Securities (Nig) Limited with N1,712,753,787.76 (10.87 per cent) placed third on the table, Chapel Hill Denham Securities Ltd trailed behind having transacted N1,041,143,619.42 (6.60 per cent). Others that followed sequentially were Cordros Securities Limited N859,798,873.82 (5.45 per cent); CSL Stockbrokers Limited N717,848,552.11 (4.55 per cent); A.R.M Securities Limited N584,795,031.06 (3.71 per cent); EFCP Limited N546,893,753.04 (3.47 per cent); Cardinalstone Securities Limited N411,438,858.40 (2.61 per cent) and Readings Investments Limited N399,254,523.34 (2.53 per cent).

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