THE pressure to sell shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the five trading days, last week, resulted in bearish outlook with All-Share Index (ASI) recording negative trend in three of the five trading days.

The second twin performance indicator, the market capitalisation also suffered a huge depreciation due to dip in the prices of blue chips that are  used to raise indices in the market.

Transaction in the week further confirmed experts’ belief that, there is lack of commitment by investors even as the lull in activities could also be traced to profit takings and portfolio restructuring by the investors.

The hold of the bearish trend in the market started on Wednesday (19/05/2010), the previous week, following the fall in market capitalisation and the All-Share Index which closed the day at a value of N6.667 trillion and 27,424.47 basis points respectively.  Some of the dividends declared in the second quarter of the year could not get positive reaction from  investors as the share prices maintained southward trend. However, transaction volume closed the week on a high note when compared with the figures recorded at the close of tradings last Friday. As usual, the banking sector emerged the most traded sector with 1.35 billion units valued at N10.21 billion exchanged in 17,623 deals. Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc largely boosted the volume traded in the sector.

The decline recorded in the market cuts across most of the sectors with the exception of the petroleum marketing sector that staged a rebound. There was an evidence of bear grip on majority of blue chip stocks as indicated by the trend recorded in the NSE-30 index at the close of trading session.

Notwithstanding the bearish outlook of the market, investors are enjoined to look out for valued stocks whose prices have declined, as the present negative outlook in the market may not last, most especially considering some of the positive developments in the market.

A review of transaction in the market, last week, shows that UACN Plc suffered most in terms of depreciation, the stocks of the company dipped by -20.78 per cent. Nigerian Breweries followed closely -10.71 per cent while Chemical and Allied Products, Guinness Nigeria and Julius Berger ended the five top losers with -7.29, -2.73 and -20.72 per cent respectively.

A comparative analysis of the market with the previous week indicates that the market dipped by N147 billion or -2.26 per cent.  The market opened on Monday on a bearish note for investors as the market capitalisation dropped 1.44 per cent or N94 billion while the index fell by the same margin of 1.43 per cent or 384.28 points.

Fifty-three stocks depreciated while 27 stocks appreciated. Nigerian Breweries Plc depreciated by 2.82 per cent. GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Ashaka Cement Plc, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria and UAC-Properties lost 4.97, 4.98, 4.76 and 4.88 per cent respectively. Nestle Nigeria appreciated by the maximum 5.0 per cent while Oando Plc, 7UP, Stanbic IBTC and Costain appreciated by 3.97, 4.98, 4.95 and 3.95 per cent each.

Tuesday also recorded another huge fall in investors’ wealth in the market as performance indicators lost again by N120 billion, or 1.87 per cent while the index fell further by 1.86 per cent or 492.5 points. There was no  disparity in the twin market indicators  on Monday and Tuesday  because  there was no introduction or listing of new shares on both days.

Fifty-six stocks depreciated while 18 stocks  appreciated in value. Benue Cement Plc, Flour mills Nigeria, Lafarge Wapco Plc, Guinness Nigeria and Dangote Fourmills Plc, all depreciated by 4.99, 2.29, 3.75, 0.69 and 4.95 per cent while Chemical and Allied Products, UACN, BOC Gases, International Breweries and Air Service rose by a value of 4.97,1.52, 5.0, 4.58 and 4.95 per cent respectively.

The market was also flat on Wednesday as the market capitalisation dropped  by N30 billion while the index lost 334.46 basis points. A total of 454.9 million shares worth N3.7 billion was traded in 7,661 deals while 30 stocks appreciated compared to 51 that shed weight.

Nigerian Bottling Company, Chemical and Allied Products, GlaxoSmithKline, Benue Cement Company and First City Monument Bank appreciated by 5.0, 4.96, 4.75, 0.62 and 4.93 per cent. Nestle Nigeria Plc shed 2.24 per cent in the day’s transaction while Oando, Nigerian Breweries, Flourmill Nigeria , and UACN dropped by 5.0, 5.0, 3.35 and 4.85 per cent.

However, reprieve came the way of investors on Thursday as the negative trend in activities in the market for over one week was halted with the primary measurement indicators- market capitalisation and All-Share Index- rising marginally by 1.1 per cent.

The hold of the bears in the market, which started on Wednesday the previous week, had wiped off N542 billion from the equity market capitalisation, amounting to 8 per cent capital depreciation.

The reversal resulted in N67billion increase in the market capitalisation from N6.221 trillion recorded on Wednesday to N6.288 trillion.

The All Share index also rose by 275.76 basis points to close at 25,849.42 points from 25,573.66 points.  At the end of trading activities, 48 stocks recorded price appreciation and the shares of  27 companies depreciated in value.

Oando Plc led the gainers’ pack with 3.96 per cent increase to close at N80.00 per share. Flourmill Nigeria Plc, UACN, Lafarge Wapco and PZ Cusson followed with a rise in value of 3.77, 4.98, 4.98 and 5.0 per cent increase. Guinness, Nigerian Breweries, 7UP, Julius Berger and BOC Gases depreciated by 2.22, 3.89, 4.99, 4.45 and 4.95 per cent respectively.

The banking sub-sector was the investors’ toast in the day as 531.33 million shares worth N2.8 billion were exchanged in 3,272 deals, followed by the insurance sub-sector with traded volume of 61.11 million shares worth N54.56 million in 450 deals.

Fidelity Bank posted 254.9 million shares valued at N721.72 million in 101 deals, while Staco Insurance netted 14.96 million shares valued at N7.5 million exchanged in 47 deals to emerge the most active in their respective sectors.

On the whole, investors bought 689.3 million shares valued at N4.8 billion in 9,696 deals.

The market closed the week on Friday on the upbeat as the market capitalisation rose by N81 billion while the index added 333.79 points to close the week at a high of N6.368 trillion and 26,183.21 points respectively.

Meanwhile, a turnover of 163.1 million units worth N178,214.1 million in 1,263 deals was recorded last week, in contrast to a total of 145.8 million units valued at N171,270.11 million exchanged in 1,127 deals during the previous week ended Thursday, May 20, 2010. The most active bond (measured by turnover volume) was the sixth FGN Bond 2029 Series 5 with a traded volume of 50.9 million units valued at N51,293.94 million in 351 deals. This was followed by the sixth FGN Bond 2019 Series 4 with a traded volume of 27.6 million units valued at N28,176.31 million in 239 deals. Nineteen of the available 39 FGN bonds were traded during the week, compared with 22 in the preceeding week.