MARKET REPORT 07/10/2008

By Ifeanyi Onuba
Published: Wednesday, 8 Oct 2008
The downward trend in the capital market continued at Tuesday’s close of transactions as only four out of the 301 listed equities recorded price appreciation.

Specifically, Thomas Wyatt Plc, Associated Bus Company Plc, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc and Dunlop Nigeria Plc were the companies that had their shares entering the gainers chart.

While Thomas Wyatt Plc added 24 kobo to its share price to close at N50.70 per share, Associated Bus Company Plc, NAHCO and Dunlop Nigeria Plc chalked up 11 kobo, five kobo and one kobo to close at N5.90 and N1.48 per share in that order.

On the other hand, blue chip companies recorded significant loses as the shares of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Flour Mills Plc and United African Company of Nigeria Plc dropped 72 kobo, 64 kobo and 46 kobo to close at N72.06, N64.33 and N46.35 per share respectively.

However, the insurance sub-sector displaced the banking sub-sector on the activity chart as it accounted for 65 per cent of total turnover.

It traded 357.136 million shares valued at N354.255m in 820 deals. This represented a volume increase of 425 per cent over the 68.306 million shares valued at N116.002m traded the preceding day in 601 deals

Turnover in the sub-sector was largely boosted by activity in the shares of Investment and Allied Assurance Plc, which accounted for 85 per cent of the sub-sector’s turnover and 55 per cent of total turnover. It traded 303.932 million shares valued at N224.909m in 119 deals.

The banking sub-sector followed on the activity chart accounting for 20 per cent of total volume traded. It traded 109.397 million shares valued at N1.433bn in 3,744 transactions, as against the 189.116 million shares valued at N2.175bn traded the preceding day in 2,681 transactions.
The shares of Spring Bank Plc drove turnover in the sub-sector accounting for 31 per cent of volume traded.
The market capitalisation of the listed equities continued its downward trend as it slid by N64bn or 0.7 per cent, from N9.684tn at Monday’s close to N9.620tn
Similarly, the All-Share-Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange dropped by 0.7 per cent from 45,504.69 to 45,203.93.
In all, investors staked N2.741bn on 550.758 million shares in 8,346 deals. This represented a volume decrease of 26 per cent over the 435.979 million shares valued at N3.461bn traded on Monday in 4,924 deals.