Listed stocks on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) shed N184.5 billion in the first week of trading in September 2019. Coincidentally, this is the week the nation’s data agency , the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced the second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figure for the nation, with clear signs that unless the nation’s managers think outside the box, the Nigerian economy may be heading for a recession.
In the second quarter of 2019, real GDP growth rate slowed to 1.94 percent as against 2.10 percent in Q1 2019.
The market capitalisation of all the listed equities closed the week at N13.21 trillion compared with N13.39 trillion on the last trading day in August. Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the NSE ended the week at 27,146.57 points, implying that it depreciated by -1.38 percent week to date and -13.63 percent year to date.
Stocks listed under the main board continued to receive serious bashing as its sectoral index closed at -12.28 percent YTD. But the worst hit are stocks quoted under the consumer goods sub sector which closed at -30.69 percent YTD and oil and gas sub sector which ended the period at -34.36 percent YTD.
Regardless of the market enthusiasm, investors traded 1.10 billion shares valued at N17.08 billion in 15,431 deals as against 713.14 million shares valued at N13.29 billion in 16,237 deals in the previous week.
The financial services sub sector was the most active and the shares of GTB, Access Bank and Zenith Bank drove the volume benchmark in the market. It should be noted that the three banks have declared interim dividends for the half year ended June 30,2019.
TELIAT SULE
