Kayode Ekundayo
6 January 2009
Despite the financial meltdown that befell the Nigerian Stock Exchange, activities on the floor of the capital market recorded greater volume of shares traded in 2008 compared with the previous year.
According to statistics from the exchange yesterday, the market recorded total turnover volume of N193.14 billion shares valued at N2.4 trillion exchanged by investors in 3,535,528billion deals.
In the comparable period during 2007, total transactions were 128.5 billion shares valued at N1.92 trillion traded in 2,388,839 billion deals.
Although the market had lost over N5 trillion between March and December 2008 as a result of the world financial crisis, NSE said the market has been very vibrant throughout the year.
According to the exchange, First Bank of Nigeria Plc was the most capitalized stock for the month of December, with a market capitalization of N524.85 billion, while Zenith Bank Plc was second with N368.4 billion and Nigerian Breweries Plc recorded N308.93 billion to occupy the third position. Oceanic Bank International Plc and Ecobank Transnational Incorporation occupied the fourth and fifth positions to complete the Top five.
While there was improvement in turnover volume, the reverse was the case with turnover value. A turnover of 9.7 billion shares worth N44.3 billion in 136,932 deals was recorded this month, in contrast to a total of 8 billion shares valued at N66.83 billion exchanged during November 2008 in 188,544 deals.
Consequently, available statistics showed that in 2008 the Insurance subsector was the most active (measured by turnover volume) with traded volume of 4.5 billion shares valued at N3.85 billion exchanged in 12,815 deals while the Banking subsector was second with traded volume of 3.31 billion shares valued at N28.12 billion exchanged in 81,501 deals. The Information Communication and Telecommunication subsector came third with transaction volume of 630.8 million shares valued at N1.52 billion traded in 2,690 deals.
The market value of the 301 listed securities closed at N9.563 trillion, down by 5.42% from N10.11 trillion recorded in the preceding month. The 213 listed equities accounted for N7 trillion or 73.1% of total market capitalization down from 72.65% in November 2008.
Equities from the Banking subsector occupied the top two positions on the market capitalization table down from Top four in the preceding month while only the top two stocks retained their preceding month's positions.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index, which opened at 33,025.75 closed at 31,450.78. This shows a decline by 4.8 per cent during the month compared to a decline by 9.1 per cent in November. Compared with an opening value of 57,990.20 in December 2007, the year-to-date decline in The NSE ASI was 45.8 per cen. The year to date lowest value of the ASI of 28,085.01 was recorded on December 16, 2008. The market recorded 24 gainers and 96 losers during December 2008 while the prices of 93 equities remained constant. Last month, the market recorded 24 gainers and 94 losers.
Of the Top 10 companies in December, three of them namely Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc and Access Bank Plc retained their November ranks. Five stocks namely Nigerian Breweries Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, PlatinumHabib Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Guinness Nigeria Plc recorded increases in market capitalization, while four stocks - ETI, African Petroleum Plc, Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Wema Bank Plc did not record any change in market capitalization.
The remaining eleven stocks suffered decreases in market capitalization. The market capitalization of the Top 20 companies totaled N4.42 trillion, representing 63.2 per cent of the equity market and 46.2 per cent of the entire market capitalization.
Meanwhile, trading activities on the floor of the exchange opened the year with huge loss. The market capitalization dropped to N6.817 trillion against the Friday's trading of N6.936 trillion, a loss of about N119.680 billion or 1.7 per cent.
All share index also shed 541.01 points to close at 30,816.23 points against the previous day trading of 31,357.24 points level. Investors traded 197.633 million shares worth N1.249 billion in 6,424 deals.
Banking sub sector led others to emerge as most traded sub sector in term of turnover as it traded 61.826 million shares valued at N638.214 million in 3,153 deals. Activities in the shares of Access bank drive the sector with a total of 9.230 million shares worth N65.268 million.
Insurance sector followed with 53.275 million shares worth N88.948 million exchanged in 891 deals. On the gainers' chart, Flour mill led 30 others with N1.50 per share to close at N33.00 per share, BCC with N0.94 per share to close at N19.84 per share, UBN N0.77 per share to close at N16.27 per share, UACN N0.66.
However, 51 stocks were on the losers' chart led by Total with N10.18 per share to close at N193.51 per share, Nestle with N9.57 to close at N181.87 per share.
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