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Recent trading
activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) revealed that some
investors are currently showing more interest in Zenith Bank’s shares
as over 1.050 billion units of the stock have been traded in the last
one week.

Zenith Bank,
according to the NSE, was the most active stock in 2010 with 6.302
billion shares traded while it also ranked as the third most
capitalised stock with N471.3 billion after Dangote Cement and Nigerian
Breweries.

While some market
watchers say the motivation behind investors’ interest in the bank’s
stock may be connected to government’s intervention in the banking
industry, others say some investors may have information about the bank
that is not known to the public.

Dimeji Akintayo,
analyst at Resource Cap, a business advisory company, said it was
obvious that investors are positioning themselves in banks’ shares
generally because the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON)
is already buying toxic assets in the banking sector.

Mr. Akintayo,
however, said, “The funds been invested in Zenith Bank are actually
coming from portfolio managers who are the main profit takers in the
market.”

Emmanuel Ikazoboh,
interim administrator of the NSE, during a media briefing on Monday,
also said that investors’ pessimism that was widespread after two
consecutive years of losses has “gradually given way to cautious
optimism.”

“The various
confidence building measures initiated by the regulatory authorities
such as the introduction of AMCON, zero tolerance for market
infractions, and compliance with post listing requirements, have begin
to yield results,” Mr. Ikazoboh said.

Market rebounds

Meanwhile, at the
close of Wednesday’s trading, the NSE’s market capitalisation, which
recorded N44 billion gains on Tuesday, further gained over N121 billion
or 1.45 per cent increase to close at N8.471 trillion from N8.350
trillion.

The number of
gainers at the end of trading session on Wednesday closed higher at 47
stocks as against the 41 gainers recorded the previous session, while
losers also closed higher at 21 stocks when compared with the 18 losers
recorded on Tuesday.

The Banking
subsector maintained its lead as the most active with 492.883 million
units valued at N4.706 billion as against the 483.696 million units
valued at N4.981 billion recorded the previous trading day.

The volume recorded
in the subsector was driven by transaction in the shares of Zenith
Bank, Wema Bank, Diamond Bank, First Bank, and Intercontinental Bank.
The total volume of 308.34 million units valued at N3.62 billion traded
in the shares of the five stocks accounted for 52.58 per cent of the
entire market volume. Trading in Zenith Bank’s shares, yesterday, was
168.319 million units, worth N2.684 billion, and it accounted for 34.15
per cent of the banking subsector’s volume.