Financial stocks lift NSE’s turnover by N10.3b

Heavy transactions in the shares of some insurance companies and banks, especially Continental Reinsurance, last week, lifted the volume of shares traded, as a turnover of 309 billion shares worth N10.323 billion were recorded in 13,042 deals by investors on the floor of the Exchange.

This volume of shares traded was, however, higher than a total of 1.029 billion units, valued at N7.980 billion that changed hands in 13,441 deals during the preceding week.
The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.139 billion shares valued at N6.028 billion traded in 7,518 deals; thus contributing 87.01 per cent and 58.39 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The consumer goods industry followed with 71.209 million shares worth N2.306 billion in 2,261 deals. The third place was occupied by the services industry with a turnover of 29.390 million shares worth N24.594 million in 258 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely – Continental Reinsurance Plc, Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc and FBN Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 565.746 million shares worth N1.450 billion in 914 deals, contributing 43.22 per cent and 14.04 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Also traded during the week were a total of 11,585 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N144,678.50 executed in 5 deals compared with a total of 20 units valued at N90.90 transacted last week in 2 deals

A total of 18,144 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N17.555 million were traded this week in 12 deals, compared with a total of 8,390 units valued at N8.203 million transacted last week in 4 deals.

The NSE All-share index and market capitalisation depreciated by 0.77 per cent and 0.80 per cent respectively to close the week at 25,454.93 and N8.807 trillion respectively.

Similarly, all other Indices finished lower during the week with the exception of the NSE Lotus and NSE Industrial Goods Indices that appreciated by 0.35 per cent and 5.14 per cent while the ASEM Index closed flat.

16 equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than 31 equities of the previous week. 35 equities depreciated in price, higher than 22 equities of the previous week, while 126 equities remained unchanged higher than 124 equities recorded in the preceding week.