By Gbenga Agbana

Tuesday, 2 Nov 2010

A total of 72.6 billion shares valued at N589.9bn were exchanged in the first nine months of the year in 1.6million deals, compared with the 75.3million shares valued at N508.7bn exchanged in 1.4 million deals in the corresponding period of 2009.

The market capitalisation of the NSE also closed the third quarter at N5.65tn, as against a peak of N6.78tn on April 19, from N4.99tn at the beginning of the year.

According to the quarterly report of Sterling Capital Markets, a subsidiary of Sterling Bank Plc, the Nigerian bourse performed better than other global markets in the review period, thus reflecting the slow pace of economic recovery, worldwide.

For instance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded 3.85 per cent in the review period, while the Standards and Poor’s gained 2.79 per cent. The FTSE 100 Index in the United Kingdom also gained 3.37 per cent, while the Nikkel 225 in Japan lost 10.83 per cent. The South African market returned 5.78 per cent, while the Ghana Stock Exchange recorded a return of 24.68 per cent.

The Nigerian stock market recorded a return of 10.68 per cent at the end of the third quarter, as against the 34.58 per cent return recorded as at April 19, 2010.

Further review of the period, according to the report, indicates that the hotel and tourism sector recorded the highest return of 44.64 per cent, followed by the breweries sector with 36.86 per cent return.

The construction sub-sector also returned 25.29 per cent, while the building materials, food/beverages and tobacco sub-sectors recorded 23.88 per cent and 21.86 per cent in that order.

The banking sub-sector, which remained the most active in terms of volume, recorded a negative return of 15.57 per cent, while the other financial institutions sector lost 18.48 per cent.

The report said the primary market was not very active in the review period, as the major equity transactions were the Oando and Unity Bank’s right issues.

Source Punch