Fidelity, FCMB, Standard Trust buoy equities turnover by 57.06%

By Nkiruka Nnorom
HEAVY trading on the shares of Fidelity Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Standard Trust Assurance Plc , last week lifted total market turnover on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, by 57.06 per cent to 1.19 billion units of shares.

Specifically, the three companies accounted for 679.949 million units valued at N639.862 million in 1,622 deals. Fidelity Bank led in terms of volume traded, accounting for 475.576 million units worth N475.576 million in 1,166 deals, followed by FCMB Group with 104.282 million volume of shares worth N114.135 million executed in 452 deals, while Standard Trust Assurance pooled 100.322 million shares valued at N50.151 million in four deals.

The action drove the financial services sector to the fore as it emerged the most active in terms of volume traded. At the end of trading session last week, 1.014 billion shares valued at N3.070 billion were traded by investors in 6,700 deals.

The consumer goods sector followed on the activity chart with 51.888 million shares worth N1.581 billion in 2,025 deals, while the conglomerates sector placed third with a turnover of 47.517 million shares worth N66.904 million in 542 deals.

Year-to-date return down -5.08%

Analysis of activity on the price movement chart showed that negative sentiment pervaded the equities market during the week as both the All Share Index, ASI, and market capitalisation nose-dived by 0.92 per cent, thereby pegging the year-to-date return to negative 5.08 per cent.

Market capitalisation

The market capitalisation, which opened the week at N9.91 trillion depreciated by N1.08 billion to close at N8.83 trillion, while the ASI fell by 245.51 basis points to settle at 25,746.52 from 25,501.01 points. All the sectors closed lower during the week with the exception of the Alternative Securities Market, ASeM, which closed flat at 1,194.88 points. 

Sectorial analysis: The oil and gas sector declined the most, falling by 3.06 per cent  after closing down on two of four trading days in the week. Consequently, the Year-to-Date,   YtD, return settled at -5.48 per cent as one gainer versus four losers were featured   in the sector during the week.  Total Nigeria Plc advanced by 4.11 per cent or N10.65 to close at N270.00, while Mobil Oil Nig. Plc, Oando Plc, Forte Oil Plc and Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc went down by 10 per cent, 5.25 per cent, 4.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.

The consumer goods sector followed with 1.58 negative return, Week-to-Date,  WtD, to settle at -12.60 per cent. International Breweries Plc emerged loner gainer in the sector, rising by  4.92 per cent to close at N17.50. Conversely, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc fell by 4.29 per cent,  Dangote Flour Mills declined by  7.46 per cent), while  Unilever  and Union Dicon Salt depreciated by five per cent and  4.97 per cent respectively.

The industrial goods sector was the next, dropping by 1.55 per cent return,  on account of heavy sell off on Ashaka Cement Plc and Lafarge Africa, which went down by 4.95 per cent and 3.16 per cent respectively.

The insurance sector halted the positive sentiments recorded in the previous week, as it declined by 0.92 per cent, thereby pushing the YtD return to -0.94 per cent. The sector recorded no gainer and three stocks waned in value. Axa Mansard Insurance topped the list of under performers, shedding 3.80 per cent to close at N1.52. It was trailed by Continental  Reinsurance -1.57 per cent and Custodian and Allied Insurance, which fell by 0.62 per cent. The banking sector declined by 0.40 per cent. The highest gainer in the week was Fidelity Bank,  advancing by a whopping 21.43 per cent, on the back of a good full year 2016 result and a proposed dividend of 14 kobo/share, to close at a year high of N1.02 per share.

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