EXPERTS and observers’ permutations in the capital market that the equities market will rally back more in the second quarter of the year can be said to have failed again.
This is because the dealing members on the Exchange in their onerous responsibility to diagnose and provide solution to the dip in the stock market, have not succeeded in checking the downward slide in the market.

It would be recalled that based on 24.5 per cent recovery of the equities market during the first quarter of this year, investment advisers and dealing members on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) had assured investors of the need to return to the stock market.

However, an x-ray of transaction from the beginning of the year to the close of the second quarter as at  June 23, 2010, showed that the percentage increase in the market in the first quarter of the year has been eroded by 1.9 per cent.

Since the close of the first quarter, investment transactions in the securities market have rather than take the upward climb, become a sliding one and occasionally if it bounces  back,  it will suffer great dip the next day.

Year to date performance analysis of 110 equities showed that Union Dicon, Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Unic Insurance Plc, Intercontinental Wapic Plc, United Textile Plc and Afribank Plc led the pack of stocks that posted worst negative returns as the shares fell by -86.02 %, -55.31%, -54.55 % , -41.82 %, -35.40 and -13.73 % respectively.

In other words, the stocks along others resisted recovery and instead of the prices rising along the lines of market recovery globally, they nose dived and continue to nosedive by the day.

The analysis depicting performance of the stocks from January 2 when trading opened to Wednesday June 23, 2010, showed that a total of 61 stocks posted various percentage rise in prices, while 16 stocks neither appreciated nor depreciated in price.

For instance, Julius Berger Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Flourmill Nigeria , Berger paints and National Salt Plc gave investors the highest capital appreciations with their share prices rising by as much as 113.3%, 91.64%, 91.64 %, 88.13 % and 77.01% in that order.

Opening at N25.79 at the beginning of the year, Julius Berger rose to N55.00 per share as at Wednesday last week, and Cadbury rose from N10.39 per share to N28.39 while Flourmill Nigeria rose from N36.00 to N68.99 per share.

Conoil maintained the 10th position with an increase  from N27.63 per share to N52.50 per share as at last Wednesday, representing 90.01% increase ahead of Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc with 76.79%, Total Nigeria with 70.43% and Eterna Oil with 50.20% appreciation during the period under review.

Stocks that yielded zero returns during the period include, Sovereign insurance, Great Insurance Plc, Linkage Assurance, Dunlop Plc, Adwitch Plc, Pharma Deko Plc, Poly Product, Beta Glass Plc, Afriprint Plc and Pinnacle Point Group. They remained stable as they neither appreciated nor depreciated.

But in spite of the market recovery trend, which has seen prices of majority stocks taking a dip, prices of  21 stocks  dropped below opening prices at the beginning of the year.
In this category are the rescued banks of Intercontinental Bank, Spring Bank, Afribank Plc while Fidelity Bank and Ecobank Nigeria shared from this too.

Meanwhile, the equities market was flat for the five trading days last week as loses from major blue chip stocks helped to depress the market which until last week had shown sign of a rebound.

Trading last week showed that Nestle Nigeria Plc led the losers chart with 2.18 per cent. Oando Plc, Benue Cement Company, Flourmill Nigeria and Cadbury Nigeria Plc followed closely with 6.41, 6.21, 5.54 and 9.45 per cent while

Conoil Plc, UAC plc, Beta Glass, University Press and International Breweries plc lead the pack of the five top most stocks which appreciated. They rose by 5.0, 1.22, 2.57, 6.14 and 5.04 per cent.

The market opened  on Monday on a lull note led by huge loses by the Food/Beverages & Tobacco, banks and other mid-cap securities. Nestle Nigeria, Benue Cement Company, and Guinness Nigeria Plc led the laggard in the day, while two financial services giants, Ecobank TransNational Incorporated and United Bank for Africa also suffered depreciation in the day. The broad index finished lower at 25,782.61 on price deepening suffered by 32 companies in the day.

Losers in the  Food/Beverage & Tobacco sector were led by Nestle Nigeria Plc 750 kobo. Building materials giant Benue Cement went down by 155 kobo, Breweries giant Guinness Nigeria Plc dip 109 kobo while Ashakacement finished lower by 67 kobo.  Meanwhile, Oando Nigeria gained 199 kobo, Cadbury Nigeria Plc chalked 112 kobo, and GlaxoSmithKline appreciated 70 kobo, UACN rose by 60 kobo and Nigeria Handling Company climbed by 55 kobo.

The market fell by a total of N19 billion in the first trading day of the week.

Investors on Tuesday swapped 369.9 million ordinary shares worth N2.67 billion in 7,759 deals. At the close of transaction in the day, the value of listed equities, represented by market capitalization depreciated by N7 billion, from N6.271 trillion posted on Monday to N6.264 trillion. The All share index closed the day at 25,755.46 after losing 201.11 basis points.

Thirty-nine stocks recorded price depreciation as against 26 that featured on gainers table.

Transaction in equities on Wednesday also saw losers outweighing gainers; this follows major depreciation by most blue chip companies, resulting in the market capitalization dropping by N49bilion.

Specifically, at the close of transactions in the day, the rise in price depreciation recorded by some highly capitalized companies pushed market indices lower in the day.

Corporate performance indices or the All-share index of the Exchange deepened by 201.11 points or 1.00 per cent from 25,755.46 recorded on Tuesday to 25,554.35 while market capitalization depreciated by from N6. 264 trillion to N6.215 trillion.

With transactions exchanged in 6,025 deals, the banking sub-sector was the most active in volume terms with 149.5 million shares worth N2.38 billion followed by insurance sub-sector with 40.5 million units worth N34.3 million in 336 deals.

In all, 314.4 million shares worth N2.4 billion were exchanged in 6,025 by investors.

Thursday saw transaction                   continuing on the bearish trend with which the market opened on Monday, as investors’ wealth again went down by N51 billion or 0.82 per cent while the index also fell by 0.83 per cent or 211.33 points. Forty-nine stocks depreciated compared to 17 stocks that appreciated.

Lafarge Wapco Cement Plc, Flourmill Nigeria, Cadbury Nigeria, Ecobank TransNational Incorporated and First Bank all depreciated by 150 kobo,149 kobo, 138 kobo, 69 kobo and 52 kobo while Dangote Flourmill, Unilever, UPL Nigeria, International Breweries and Intercontinental Bank rose by a value of 70 kobo, 36 kobo, 9 kobo, 8 kobo and 7 kobo respectively.

The market closed the week on Friday on a depressed note as the market capitalisation dipped again by N46 billion while the index fell 188.76 points to close the week at a low of N6.118 trillion and 25,154.26 points respectively.

The cumulative loss in the market in the week stood at N172 billion or 2.73 per cent.

The All-share index, another index for measuring performance of listed equities, shed 2.74 per cent to close the week at 25,154.26 points from 25,861.93 points.

Meanwhile, a turnover of 346.6 million units worth N381.4 million in 3,629 deals was recorded last week, in contrast to a total of 257.51 million units valued at N280.9 million exchanged in 2,452 deals during the week ended Thursday, June 24, 2010. The most active bond (measured by turnover volume) was the 7th FGN Bond 2013 Series 1 with a traded volume of 85.2 million units valued at N84.6 million in 803 deals. This was followed by the 5th FGN Bond 2013 Series 1 with a traded volume of 37.0 million units valued at N40.8 million in 309 deals. Twenty of the available thirty-seven FGN Bonds were traded during the week, compared with twenty-seven in the preceding week.