Equities market turnover improves by 52%

The equities market recorded a total turnover of 1.19 billion shares, an increase of 51.55 percent from 786.18 million traded last week.

Fidelity Bank, First City Monument Bank and Standard Trust accounted for 36.33 percent of the total turnover`.

The value of trades also increased by 30.87 percent to N6.04 billion from N5.83 billion, while ZENITHBANK, GUARANTY, and NESTLE accounted for 30.87 percent of total value.

The Nigerian equities market however closed lower in the four day trading week ended 13th April 2017, with the All Share Index shedding 0.92 percent to close at 25,510.01 points.

On Tuesday, the All Share Index recorded its largest loss, shedding 0.58 percent to close at 25,478.06 point, before inching up by 0.07 percent and 0.05 percent on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Compared to last week, all indices closed lower, with the Oil & Gas index losing the most. The Oil & Gas Index lost 3.06 percent during the week in review, following selloffs in Mobil and Seplat that lost 10 percent and 1.27 percent respectively.

Likewise, the Banking, Insurance, Consumer Goods, and Industrial Goods indices declined by 0.40 percent, 0.92 percent, 1.58 percent and 1.55 percent respectively, as investors liquidated their holdings in Zenith Bank, Guaranty, AXA Mansard, Continental Reinsurance, Guinness, Unilever, Dangote Cement and Wapco.

Each stock lost 0.21 percent, 1.20 percent, 3.80 percent, 1.57 percent, 0.08 percent, 5 percent, 0.36 percent and 3.16 percent respectively.

Market breadth was negative, with 13 gainers compared to 36 last week. The gainers were topped by Fidelity Bank which added 21.43 percent w/w versus 37 losers compared to 22 last week led by Dangote Sugar that shed 14.29 percent w/w. 127 stocks remained flat higher than 119 recorded last week.

In the course of the week, Market Capitalization also depreciated 0.92 percent or N82 billion to close the week at N8.827 trillion.

The week’s decline expectedly followed profit-taking across major stocks, following two weeks of bargain hunting.

During the week, there were two major positive news from the macro environment, which may be a signal of hope for investors in the coming trading sessions. The first is the Central Bank’s assurance of its commitment to improve FX liquidity to tame the renewed pressure on the currency at the parallel market and the reduction of the inflation figure for the month of March which fell to 17.26 percent, from 17.78 percent reported in February.