Nigeria’s listed stocks lose over N74billion ahead of elections

Nigerian stock market lost over N74billion in the trading week ended Friday, February 22, 2019.

At the sound of closing gong ahead of Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.61percent week-on-week (wow) to close at 32,515.52 points from 32,715.20 points as at Friday, February 15.

Also, the value of Nigeria’s listed equities decreased to N12.126 trillion from a high of N12.200 trillion recorded the preceding week. Thirty-four (34) equities appreciated in price during the review week, lower than 60 in the preceding week.

“Barring any negative surprises at the polls, we anticipate a positive start to next week’s (Monday February 25) trading as investors price in improved certainty upon conclusion of the general elections”, said analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Capital in their weekly market note.

Thirty-eight (38) equities depreciated in price, higher than 21 equities in the preceding week, while 96 equities remained unchanged higher than 87 equities recorded in the preceding week.

At the close of trading in the review week, all other indices finished lower with the exception of the NSE ASem, NSE Banking, NSE Insurance, NSE-AFR Bank Value and NSE Oil/Gas indices which rose by 0.96percent, 0.68percent, 0.02percent, 0.95percent and 0.13percent respectively.

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A total turnover of 1.481 billion shares worth N17.647 billion in 20,449 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 2.834 billion shares valued at N28.138 billion that exchanged hands last week in 28,739 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.038 billion shares valued at N10.170 billion traded in 12,232 deals; thus contributing 70.07percent and 57.63percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 193.204 million shares worth N306.521 million in 1,330 deals. The third place was Consumer Goods Industry with a turnover of 72.042 million shares worth N4.381 billion in 2,990 deals.

Trading in the Top Three Equities namely, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 421.500 million shares worth N1.274 billion in 2,979 deals, contributing 28.46percent and 7.22percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Meanwhile, the NASD OTC market for unlisted securities closed the review trading week to February 22, 2019 with market capitalisation increasing to N527.25 billion from preceding week’s low of N513.15 billion, which shows a 2.75 percent increase in capitalisation. The Unlisted Securities Index (USI) for the review week recorded an increase from 714.27 points to 733.89 points.

Iheanyi Nwachukwu