Against conventional knowledge and expectation of investors’ response to companies’ fundamentals, Japaul Oil and Maritime Service recorded heavy trade on the Nigerian stock Exchange (NSE) for two straight sessions, indicating an unusual buying pressure on the stock.
Japual recorded a total turnover of 69.05 million units valued at N14.13 million on Tuesday, from 42,030 units worth N8,406 traded in the previous, respectively
This caused the stock, which has remained unchanged at 20kobo for more than a month, to record its biggest gain in almost 5 months to settle at 22 kobo.
As a result, the oil and gas firm accounted for 21.84 percent of the total volume of 316.12 million units transacted on the Nigeria’s stock market to emerge the most active stock by volume on Tuesday.
Similarly, the stock extended the same trend into the second trading session of the week to record 92.3 million units valued at N20.82 million, further propping up its price by 9.09 percent to 24 kobo as at 2:00PM Nigerian time on Wednesday. Trading closes 2:30pm in Lagos.
These trades, which were the heaviest in the last one year, appear unusual for a company that consistently recorded losses in the last four years coupled with a shrinking revenue base from a high of N10.57 billion in 2014 to N936 million in 2018.
