By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTbank), Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) and Zenith Bank Plc emerged the three (3) top traded equities on the Nigerian bourse to close the week.
According to the NSE’s stock market report for the week ended August 23 2013, trading in these equities measured by turnover volume accounted for 273.608 million shares worth N3.500 billion in 3,792 deals, contributing 24.47%, 26.66% and 15.48% to the total equity turnover volume, value and deals respectively.
As usual, the financial services sector measured by volume led the activity chart with 724.394 million shares valued at N6.286 billion traded in 13,418 deals; contributing 64.79%, 48.58% and 54.79% to the total equity turnover volume, value and number of deals respectively.
This was followed by the conglomerates sector with a turnover volume of 129.621 million shares worth N223.102 million in 961 deals, contributing 11.59%, 1.72% and 3.92% to the total equity turnover volume, value and number of deals respectively. While the Healthcare sector came third with 59.491 million shares worth N1.196 billion in 486 deals.
In terms of index movement, the NSE reported its All-Share Index shedded 1.11% to close at 36,577.28, while the NSE 30 Index depreciated by 1.07% to close at 1,714.54.
The report affirmed that all the indices depreciated during the week with the exception of NSE Insurance that appreciated by 1.91%. The NSE Consumer Goods, NSE Banking, NSE Oil/Gas, NSE-Lotus II, NSE Industrial Goods shed 0.87%, 1.28%, 4.24%, 0.35% and 1.20% respectively.
Investment One financial market reports said the NSE All Share Index dipped for the third week running, losing 111 basis points cumulatively to close at 36,577 points.
The Investment One report affirmed that the index currently trades at 28.56% premium to the year-to-date low and 8.62% discount to year-to-date high.
According to the report, the Nigerian equities maintained its 7th position on the performance ladder in the ranking of global markets. In Naira terms, Nigerian stocks YtD performance currently stands at 30.27%.
While the Afrinvest weekly market update said bearish sentiments held sway for most of the week in the banking sector leading to more companies on the losers list, in spite of modest re-entries mid-week.
Afrinvest report affirmed that despite the relatively impressive 2.3% interim dividend yield of Access Bank, the stock lost 0.5% during the week. Divergent to the trend however were Skye Bank with a 6.1% mark-up, GT Bank up by 0.9% and FBN Holdings with a 0.8% change.
However, analysts at Afrinvest expects the Nigerian equity market to stabilise in the coming week as investors take advantage of fundamentally good stocks which has suffered huge depreciation in the past weeks.
Click here to read full NSE’s weekly report
Click here to read Afrinvest weekly update
Click here to read Investment One market update


