The Nigerian equity market last week continued its southward journey as profit taking persist by investors to take position in the money market and bond market. The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization depreciated by 1.18% to close the week at 39,331.61 and N20.578 trillion respectively.
An aggregate of 2.092 billion units of shares, valued at N29.744 billion in 24,238 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.930 billion shares valued at N20.656 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 24,687 deals.
The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 1.633 billion shares valued at N10.727 billion traded in 13,269 deals; thus contributing 78.06% and 36.06% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 92.009 million shares worth N4.521 billion in 4,168 deals. The third place was Oil & Gas Industry, with a turnover of 91.340 million shares worth N10.527 billion in 1,471 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Wema Bank Plc, AXA Mansard Insurance Plc and Zenith Bank Plc accounted for 903.561 million shares worth N5.564 billion in 4,017 deals, contributing 43.19% and 18.71% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
A total of 56,069 units valued at N411.581 million were traded this week in 12 deals compared with a total of 159,764 units valued at N1.251 billion transacted last week in 20 deals.
Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NSE Industrial Goods and NSE Sovereign Bond Indices which rose by 1.39% and 0.07% while the NSE ASeM Index closed flat.
Fourteen (14) equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than Twenty (20) equities in the previous week. Seventy-one (71) equities depreciated in price, lower than Forty-three (43) equities in the previous week, while seventy-seven (77) equities remained unchanged, lower than ninety-nine (99) equities recorded in the previous week.
Stocks to Watch
- Access Bank traded flat at N7.8. It is trading 25.71% away from its 52 weeks high of N10.5, hence there is uptrend potential in Access Bank. With the book value of N19.12, Access Bank is considered cheap at the current share price.
- FBN Holdings grew to N7.1 from N7.05. It is trading 21.11% away from its 52 weeks high of N9 which implies an uptrend potential for the share price of the big elephant. Considering its book value of N19.84, relative to the current share price, shows that FBNH is cheap at the current price and has a lot of growth potential embedded in it.
- Zenith Bank traded flat at N25.3. It is trading 11.23% away from its 52 weeks high of N28.5. Zenith declared a final dividend of N2.70 per share to its shareholders, which in addition to the 30 kobo per share as interim dividend amounts to N3.00 per share.
- UBA traded flat at N7.95 from N8.25. It is trading 18.88% away from its 52 weeks high of N9.8. With the book value of N19.16 as against its current share price, UBA is considered cheap and has uptrend potential.
- Guaranty Trust Bank dropped to N31 from N31.5. It is trading 19.38% away from its 52 weeks high of N38.45 and this implies an uptrend potential for the bank.