Law Union & Rock, AIICO lead top five traded insurance stocks

The vibrancy of the Nigerian equities market and the insurance subsector in particular was driven by key five insurance stocks that commanded huge volumes traded by investor’s during the week ended Friday 19th May 2017.

The top five insurance companies led by Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc, AIICO Insurance, UNIC Diversified Holdings , Regency Alliance and Standard Alliance pulled a total turnover of 69,182 million shares, accounting for over about 90 per cent of the total turnover recorded by the sector during the week which stood at 72,843,582 million shares.

The performances of the highly traded insurance stocks during the week showed that Law Union and Rock Insurance recorded the highest equity turnover in the insurance sector during the week as at a price of 0.84 per share, total volume of 33,220,234 million shares worth N26, 593,111.52 was transacted by investors in 24 deals during the week.

Daily Times recalls that late April 2017, about 2.1 per cent equity in Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc was swapped at a premium in a pre-arranged transaction that was merely streamlined through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The transaction report, indicated that a deal was struck for the transfer of 90 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at above-the-market price of N1.10. The transaction represented 2.09 per cent of the total issued shares of Law Union and the price represented a premium of 50.7 per cent on the insurance company’s current market price of 73 kobo at the Exchange.

The deal, according to the report, was done through the off-market, negotiated cross deals window of the Exchange and as such was not subjected to the dynamics of price discovery for the particular period. Off-market trade implied that the deal was sealed outside the floor of the NSE.

The NSE’s negotiated cross deal platform, is a special-purpose trading platform that is meant for voluminous transaction. By the cross deal, it implies that the buyer and the seller had been prearranged and the transfer at the stock market was a mere perfection of the agreement between the two. The negotiated cross deal allows the parties to the deal to close the deal at reduced cost.

However, AIICO, which held its Annual General meeting during the week under review in Lagos, followed in turnover. Trading at 52 kobo per share, AIICO commanded total transacted volume of 21,455,839 million shares, worth N11, 013,336.90, which exchanged hands in 234 deals.

Wapic Insurance which traded at 0.50kobo per share, placed third in activity table with 5,847,184 million shares worth N2, 924,294.33 million exchanged by investors in 148 deals.

N.E.M INSURANCE Company placed fourth on the week’s activity table, with equity price of N1.03 per share, the company transacted 5,078,029 million shares worth N4, 828,920.72 million , which exchanged hands in 92 deals, while Continental Re-Insurance closed the top five active insurance companies table last week with a turnover of 3,582,256 million shares worth N4,361,816.02 million in 95 deals. The company traded at N1.26 per share.