By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market ended the week on another bearish note as all-share index (ASI) depreciated by -2.01 percent – (2.01%) as at March 14, 2104.
Weekly stock market report from the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE) says that ASI closed at 38,171.32 basis points, while market capitalisation closed at N12.261 trillion for the week.
Similarly, the NSE reported that all its indices depreciated during the week, according to analysts at Cordros capital it was a difficult trading week in the Nigerian equities market as sentiments remained at low levels even at a time where earning releases suggest that companies didn’t disappoint, in their opinion.
The Cordros Capital analysts affirmed that after losing 1.53% last week, trading in the first two days brought a respite that was not strong enough to withstand the sell pressure that accompanied the last three sessions. ‘’As at Tuesday, the all -share index was in positive of 0.81% but a total loss of 2.82% recorded between Wednesday and Friday overturned the index into a negative of 2.01% for the week,’’ the analysts reported.
Cordros says investors reacted poorly to ZENITHBANK and GUARANTY’s full year results and sent both stocks down by 0.3% and 5.2% respectively w/w.
Similar to the NSE weekly report, Cordros Capital analysts said all sectoral indices closed in negative, led by the Oil & Gas which fell by 5%. ‘’The Banks followed with 2.6% while Insurance shed 2.1%. Across the market, 18 stocks recorded price gains while 64 posted losses, compared to 32 and 53 reported the previous week. UBCAP (-17.53%) and DANGSUGAR (-13.39%) topped the losers’ chart while OASIS (+16%) and PRESTIGE (+7.4%) led the advancers,’’ Cordros reported.
Also, reports from the Nigerian bourse said a turnover of 1.989 billion shares worth N15.098 billion in 21,948 deals were traded this week by investors compared to a total of 2.145 billion shares valued at N18.487 billion that exchanged hands last week in 22,697 deals.
The NSE reported that the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.608 billion shares valued at N9.644 billion traded in 12,904 deals; thus contributing 80.83% and 63.87% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
While the conglomerates industry followed with a turnover of 149.215 million shares worth N738.887 million in 1,531 deals. The third place was occupied by the consumer goods industry with 64.818 million shares worth N2.465 billion in 3,334 deals.
According to the Nigeria’s exchange, trading in the top three (3) equities namely- UBA Capital Plc, N.E.M Insurance Co. (Nigeria) Plc, and Access Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 686.251 million shares worth N2.250 billion in 1,639 deals, contributing 34.50% and 14.90% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
In terms of summary of price changes, the NSE reported 18 equities appreciated in prices during the week lower than 32 of the previous week. 65 equities depreciated in prices higher than 54 the past week, while 115 equities remained unchanged higher than 112 in the previous week.
