Profit taking continues as equities lose N44bn in April 2018

The beginning of the second quarter of 2018 saw the market capitalisation of listed equities decline by N44.45 billion. This compares to N556.8 billion listed stocks lost in March 2018, signalling that profit taking by market participants moderated last month. As a result, the market capitalisation closed at N14.94 trillion on April 30, 2018 as against N14.99 trillion on March 28,2018. As at the end of April, market capitalisation closed year to date at 9.84 percent.

The All Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) 41,268.01 points in April 2018 as against 38,243.19 points in December 29, 2017, representing a year to date performance 7.91 percent. The NSE Premium index which closed on April 30 at 15.19 percent year to date, NSE Pension Index at 16.22 percent; NSE Oil and Gas at 10.06 percent and NSE Banking index at 9.32 percent are the only sub sectoral indexes that outperformed the ASI.

In April, the worst performing sub sectoral index was the NSE ASeM index which closed at -11.85 percent. The ASeM Index closed on April 30 at 958.52 points as against 1,087.32 points on the last trading day last year. Sixty seven stocks closed positive in April with 47 of them outperforming the ASI.

CCNN emerged the most performing stock within the period as its share price rose by 115.3 percent year to date to close at N20.45 a share. Unity Bank witnessed 88.7 YTD share price appreciation to close at N1 per share. Caverton, 86 percent; NEM, 68.7 percent and Skye Bank, 68 percent complete the list of the ten most performing stocks in April 2018.

Six stocks had their share prices unchanged as at April 30, 2018. The stocks are Arbico, Capital Hotels, Golden Breweries, NCR, Skye Shelter Funds and Studio Press.

On the other hand, 45 equities shed various amounts of which the worst hit were African Alliance Insurance, -56 percent; Sovereign Insurance,-56 percent; Courtville, -58 percent; FTN Cocoa, 60 percent and UNIC Insurance, -60 percent.

Companies that declared dividends in April 2018

Company	Dividend per share in Naira	Closure date	Payment Date
Caverton	0.15	April 25, 2018	May 8, 2018
FCMB	0.10	April 12, 2018	April 30,2018
May & Baker	0.20	April 20,2018	June 6,2018
Berger Paints	0.50	May 4, 2018	June 8,2018
UACN	0.65	May 14, 2018	June 21,2018
Pharma Deko	0.05	May 4, 2018	May 23, 2018
Dangote Flour Mills	0.20	April 20,2018	June 27, 2018
Rak Unity	0.10	July 20, 2018	August 16, 2018
Lafarge Africa	1.50	April 20,2018	Pioneer profit
Unilever	0.50	April 13,2018	May 11, 2018
NAHCO	0.25	July 2, 2018	July 20,2018
Regency	0.03	April 27,2018	May 25, 2018
Sterling Bank	0.02	April 30, 2018	May 17, 2018
Presco	2.00	July 6, 2018	July 26, 2018
Lean Africa	0.14	July 6, 2018	August 3, 2016
Aluminium Extrusion	0.09	August 10, 2018	Sept. 24,2018
Consolidated Hallmark	0.02	May 4, 2018	May 22, 2018
FBN Holdings	0.25	May 4, 2018	May 16, 2018
Law Union & Rock	0.04	April 26, 2018	May 6, 2018
NPF Microfinance Bank	0.17	June 1, 2018	June 28, 2018
Fidelity Bank	0.11	May 11, 2018	May 25, 2018