Zenith, FBN lead stock market recovery as investors scramble for shares

By Odunewu Segun

Banking stocks dominated trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, last week with two of the most capitalised banks-Zenith Bank International and FBN Holdings, accounting for 25 per cent and 30.4 per cent of the total turnover volume and value respectively.

National Daily gathered that considerable improvement in banks’ corporate earnings in the first quarter of this year, which many analysts believed was the major factor for the renewed investors’ appetite for banks’ shares.

With nearly three gainers for every loser, aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose from the week’s opening value of N8.913 trillion to close the week at N9.069 trillion, an increase of 1.75 per cent.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the benchmark index that tracks prices at the Exchange, also trended from the index on board of 25,758.51 points to close at 26,235.63 points, representing a week-on-week gain of 1.85 per cent.

Zenith Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 176.77 million shares valued at N2.78 billion in 1,957 deals. FBN Holdings followed with 112.18 million shares worth N396.44 million in 1,408 deals. Altogether, the two most active stocks accounted for 288.95 million shares valued at N3.18 billion in 3,365 deals, representing 25 per cent and 30.4 per cent of total turnover volume and value for the week.

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Total turnover during the four days of trading at the NSE stood at 1.15 billion shares worth N10.44 billion in 16,676 compared with a total of 1.33 billion shares valued at N9.67 traded in 16,300 deals two weeks ago.

Financial services sector, the traditional dominant sector, remained atop activities’ chart with 813.02 million shares valued at N6.90 billion in 10,298 deals; representing 70.45 per cent and 66.13 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The oil and gas sector occupied a distant second with 106.57 million shares worth N1.06 billion in 1,356 deals while the services sector ranked third with a turnover of 90.94 million shares worth N188.20 million in 660 deals.

In the debt segment, a total of 1,582 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N1.608 million were traded in 10 deals compared with a total of 4,705 units valued at N3.934 million traded in four deals two weeks ago.

Analysts said the market could continue on the upswing over in the meantime, although profit-taking transactions could moderate performance in early trades this week.