NSE rides into new week strong as investors gain N457bn in one week

With barely three weeks of trading activities till the end of the 2017 financial year, the domestic bourse (Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE) has not relented in its positive performance, as it closed positive for the third consecutive week, with the Market Capitalization appreciating by N345 billion or 3.46 percent to close the week at N13.672 trillion and the ASI appreciating by 3.46 percent to close at 39,257.53 points.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-date returns increased to 3.46 per cent and 46.08 per cent respectively.

The Consumer Goods was up 6.14 per cent, banking added 5.34 per cent, and insurance 0.20 per cent at the close of the week, while the industrial goods dropped 1.37 per cent and oil and gas fell 0.47 per cent lower.

The gains recorded during the week were driven by FBNH (+26.33% w/w), CADBURY (+22.87% w/w), and FIDELITYBK (+20.87% w/w); while investors took profit in the shares of TOTAL (-5.39% w/w), MANSARD (-4.65% w/w), and GUINNESS (-4.93% w/w) respectively.

47 equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 39 of the previous week. 20 equities depreciated in price, 23 equities of the previous week, while 105 equities remained unchanged lower than 109 equities recorded in the preceding week.

Total turnover of 3.316 billion shares worth N36.451bn in 29,771 deals were traded by investors in contrast to a total of 14.257 billion shares valued at N35.056bn that exchanged hands previous week in 17,379 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 2.785 billion shares valued at N26.075bn traded in 18,293 deals; thus contributing 83.97% and 71.54% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Conglomerates Industry followed with 247.639 million shares worth N1.330bn in 1,333 deals. The third place was occupied by consumer goods Industry with a turnover of 185.560 million shares worth N5.976bn in 6,137 deals.

Meanwhile, an additional volume of 51,299,322 ordinary shares of 50k each of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc were listed on the Daily Official List of the Exchange on the 4th of December, 2017.

These additional shares arose from the Bank’s Long Term Transformation Incentive Plan (‘’LTTIP’’). With this listing of 51,299,322 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid up shares of Union Bank Plc now stood at 16,987,105,793 ordinary shares.

Adesola Afolabi