Stocks sustain sliding profile on the Exchange

The equities market closed yesterday on a negative note, as Nigerian Stock Exchange [NSE] All Share index [ASI] depreciated by 1.26 per cent to close at 29,553.69 basis points, compared with the 2.57 per cent depreciation recorded previously. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at 14.73 per cent.

Market breadth closed negative as Access Bank led six gainers against 24 losers topped by Ubcap at the end of yesterday’s session- an unimproved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Market turnover however closed positive as volume climbed by 51.28 per cent against -82.90 decline recorded in the previous session. Diamond Bank, Access Bank and First Bank were the most active to boost market turnover.Diamond Bank and Nigerian Breweries topped market value list.

On sectoral indices, Asem recorded 0.00 per cent gain to emerge the most supportive sectoral index among others while Banking emerged as worst hit to close with 3.88 per cent.

Volume shockers included Diamond Bank which led the list of active stocks that record impressive volume spike at the end of today’s session.

Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2014, the total number of new debt and equity issues recorded in the capital market stood at 22 and the value of these new issues stood at N549.53 billion.

In the third quarter, a total of 19 new equity and debt issues valued at N345.56 billion were recorded. When both periods are compared, the number and value of new issues in the fourth quarter increased by 15.79 per cent and 59.03 per cent respectively.

During the last quarter, a total of nine new equity issues were approved by the Commission out of which six were rights issues, one special placement, one offer for subscription, and one debt to equity conversion.

In total, the value of new equity issues approved by the Commission in the fourth quarter of the year stood at N192.42billion.

In the previous quarter of the year, seven new equity issues comprising two rights issues, three private placements ,one debt to equity conversion, and one IPO were approved by the Commission and were jointly worth N77.86 billion.

When both periods of the year were compared, the number and value of new equity issues approved by the Commission in the fourth quarter of 2014 increased by 28.57 per cent and 147.15 per cent respectively.

The debt market witnessed the allotment of nine FGN bonds jointly worth N182.11 billion. Also, two corporate bonds jointly worth N145 billion and two sub-national bonds jointly worth N30 billion were approved by the Commission.

In total, 13 debt instruments valued at N357.11 billion were issued in the fourth quarter of 2014. In the previous quarter, a total of 12 debt instruments consisting of nine FGN bonds and three corporate bonds jointly valued at N267.70 billion were issued.

A comparison of both quarters indicates increases of 8.33 per cent and 33.40 per cent in the number and value of debt instruments issued respectively.