Investors scramble for bank stocks as equities appreciate

Banking stocks led another week of sustained price appreciation last week with a week-on-week gain of 4.99 per cent by the sectoral gauge as more investors scramble for their stocks.

According to findings by National Daily, the All Share Index (ASI)-the common index that tracks prices of all equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), closed the week with a gain of 1.60 per cent.

The financial services industry led the activity chart with 2.189 billion shares valued at N21.792 billion traded in 18,832 deals; thus contributing 79.98 per cent and 68.01 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The conglomerates industry followed with 287.945 million shares worth N621.772 million in 2,031deals. The third place was occupied by Consumer Goods Industry with a turnover of 114.832 million shares worth N5.370 billion in 5,040 deals.

The trio of Access Bank Plc, Zenith International Bank Plc and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc were the most active. They accounted for 918.046 million shares worth N10.324 billion in 5,809 deals, contributing 33.53 per cent and 32.22 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Also traded during the week were a total of 16,300 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N973,376 in three deals compared with a total of 40.317 million units valued at N178.841 million transacted in 12 deals in previous week.

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In the debt segment, a total of 12,193 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N12.440 million were traded in 14 deals compared with a total of 10,860 units valued at N10.196 million traded 10 deals in previous week.

General and sectoral indices showed that most investors are trading on the profit side with the ASI, which serves as Nigeria’s sovereign equities return index, indicating a quarter profit for the average investors by the weekend.

Besides banking stocks, the uptrend at the Nigerian stock market had been driven by large-cap stocks. The NSE 30 Index, which tracks the 30 most capitalised stocks, rose by 2.28 per cent last week to close the week with average year-to-date return of 29.42 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the NSE rose from the week’s opening value of N11.504 trillion to close the week at N11.692 trillion, representing net capital gain of N188 billion. The ASI also rallied from its index on board of 33,276.68 points to close at 33,810.56 points.

While highly capitalised stocks held the market against running profit-taking, there were more losers against gainers during the week as investors sought to monetise accumulated capital gains into cash. There were 38 gainers against 42 losers last week compared with 59 gainers and 21 losers in the previous week.