Nigeria Content Online

The market capitalisation of equities at the Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE) appreciated marginally by 0.08 percent at the close of trading
session last week, as against a decline of 0.06 percent recorded in the
preceding week.

The NSE market capitalisation of the 194 First-Tier equities
closed last Friday at N8 trillion after opening the week at N7.994 trillion,
reflecting N6 billion gains.

Meanwhile, about N5 billion was lost in the previous week. The
NSE All-Share Index in the week under review also rebounded by 0.08 percent or
21.6 units to close at 25,041.68 basis points from the 25,020.08 recorded at
the beginning of trading during the week. The Exchange has attributed the
marginal gains recorded to the reduction in the number of trading days. “The
stock market opened for three days as last Monday was declared a public holiday
by the federal government to commemorate Easter Monday celebration and Tuesday
was selected to hold the rescheduled State Governorship and House of Assembly
elections,” it said.

Analysts at GTI Capital, a stock broking firm, said the market
witnessed a two day upward rally last week while the rally came to a halt on
Friday “as portfolio investors balance their accounts for the usual month end
reports.” They said despite the significant loss in value in the NSE market
capitalisation, “other subsector gauges remain active.” In the mean time,
market watchers have advised investors to maintain value investing approach in
the coming weeks.

Gainers and Losers

The number of gainers in the week closed at 39 stocks compared
with the 56 stocks recorded in the previous week. Nestle Nigeria topped the
gainers chart for the week with five percent appreciations or N18.39 to close
at N386.22 per share. On the losers’ side, a total of 44 stocks recorded price
decline in the week compared with the 34 stocks that declined in the previous
week. Chemical and Allied Products topped the losers chart for the week with
49.9 percent depreciation to close at N20.99 per share.

A total of seven equity prices were adjusted during the week for
dividend and bonuses as recommended by their board of directors.

The total volume traded in the week closed at 0.92 billion units
valued at N9.72 billion compared with 2.26 billion units valued at N14.15
billion recorded in the previous week.

The banking subsector was the most active during the week,
measuring by turnover volume, with 626.41 million shares worth N6.01 billion.
Volume in the banking subsector was largely driven by activity in the shares of
Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank and Access Bank.

Trading in the shares of the four banks accounted for 412.2
million shares, representing 65.80 percent and 44.57 percent of the subsector’s
turnover and total volume traded during the week, respectively.

The insurance subsector, boosted by activity in the shares of
NEM Insurance Company and AIICO Insurance followed on the week’s activity chart
with a subsector turnover of 77.61 million shares valued at N55.41 million.
Trading on NEM Insurance Company accounted for 49.03 percent of the insurance
subsector.