LOW volume transaction last week continued to dictate the pace of investment in securities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The dip in turnover in equity trading, according to experts, is being echoed by fear of investors in recent times  as a result of alleged inflammatory comments on  banks in the market.

The CBN had, last week, again said that banks were yet to be in the positive territory despite their first quarter impressive results. This was  barely a week after the global rating agency; Standard and Poor,  said that  banks in the country were still too risky to invest in, thus giving investors the wrong impression that the stock market is not a friendly place to go for now.

A peep into activities on the trading floor of the Exchange  showed that a prototype of happenings during the global economic recession may be around the corner again with the negative effects emerging. It is  now a common sight at the market to see dealing houses having a long list of stocks mandated by their owners to be sold, but nobody is coming forward for them and this has resulted in glut of shares in the stock market.

However, major transaction observed to be driving investment in the market now is the engagement of  dealing houses  in cross deals between a willing buyer and a willing seller of large numbers of shares. This contributed to significant reduction in  number of deals at the stock market.

The volatility in the market, which investment watchers said would dominate  manufacturing  and construction  sub-sectors, is still prevalent while disbursement of the special fund is still pending. For the construction industry, natural occurrence like downpour of rain between the months of May to August is taking its toll on activities in the industry and making investment to dip in the sub-sector on the Exchange.
It would be recalled that Mr. Akeem Oyewale, Managing Director Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers limited had predicted a positive outlook in 2010 for investors

in the stock market  as a result of expected  improvement in the performance  of  banking, petroleum marketing, construction and building material sub-sectors, barring any change in government policy.

Oyewale, who made this remark in his paper presentation, “Introduction to Equity Valuation”, noted that the four sub-sectors were  expected to give good returns to investors if there is no adjustment in the  reform policy of government. But with the permutation of various stakeholders of rallying in the market in the year, trading in the stock market still shows a seller market with cautious buying of equities.

A review of transaction last week showed that Guinness Nigeria Plc led the gainers chart with N7.49. Nigerian Bottling Company, University press, Eternoil & Gas Plc and Custodian & Allied Insurance Plc followed closely with N1.45, N0.75, N0.47 and N0.27, while  Conoil Plc, Dangote Sugar , Ashakacement Plc, Dangote Flourmills and Nigerian Breweries plc led the pack of the five top most stocks which depreciated. They fell by N2.00, N1.99, N1.80, N1.75 and N1.31.

A turnover of 1.6 billion shares worth N13.7 billion in 29,354 deals was recorded last week, in contrast to a total of 1.11 billion shares valued at N9.84 billion exchanged previous week in 29,892 deals.The reduction in turnover in shares traded in the market previous week reared its head in Monday’s transaction causing performance indicators value to slid N18 billion or 0.29 per cent.

Activities in the day saw 36 companies pitching their tent on the losers table while 29 others companies appreciated in value. Total trading in the day closed at 218.8 ordinary shares worth N1.8 billion transacted in 5,277 deals.

Transaction in the first trading day of the week saw the banking sub-sector recording a cumulative trading volume of 114.5 million shares worth N888.4 million done in 2,900 deals.The conglomerate sub-sector followed closely  with a total transaction volume of 37.5 million ordinary shares worth N95.4 million swapped by investors in 266 deals.

A review of the price movement chart for the day showed Dangote Sugar Plc led other losers with a price depreciation of 86 kobo, while Cadbury Nigeria plc, Oando plc, Honeywell Flourmills and Berger paints plc slid by 78 kobo, 49 kobo, 34 kobo and 31 kobo.Conversely, UPL Nigeria, NASCON, May & Baker, First Bank of Nigeria Plc and Custodian Insurance Plc gained 35 kobo, 32 kobo, 31 kobo, 20 kobo and 16 kobo respectively.

Transactions in the stock market witnessed marginal gains recorded by the major performance indicators at the close of activities Tuesday. The twin performance indicators of the market, the All-Share Index and the total market capitalisation of all listed stocks recorded a marginal 0.09 per cent increase.

While the index rose by 20.73 points increase to 25,170.31 basis points, from its preceding marks of 25,149.59, the market capitalisation grew by N6 billion to N6.129 trillion over the previous N6.123 trillion.Turnover of trades equally appreciated to 254.68 million shares valued at N2.10 billion exchanged in 6,417 deals, over previous total volume of 218.8 million shares worth N1.8 billion which changed hands in 5,277 deals.

The volumes of shares trading, was, however, lower than 239.6 million units, valued at N1.8 billion exchanged in 5,772 deals on Friday. The total value of the market had dropped by N18 billion or 0.29 per cent, from N6.141 trillion recorded on Friday to N6.123 trillion while the All-Share Index depreciated by 74.11 points or 0.29 per cent, from 25,223.70 to 25,149.59 at the opening transactions on Monday.

On the price movement chart, 34 stocks depreciated, short of the 36 depreciated stocks at the previous activity, with Nigerian Breweries Plc leading with N0.81 to close at N62.05. per share, while Oando Plc followed, shedding N0.50 to close at N74.00 per share, Ashaka Cement Plc ranked third with a loss of N0.39 to close at N19.40 per share, while Stanbic-IBTC Plc, and Diamond Bank Plc shed N0.38 and N0.34, to close at N9.57 and , N7.50 per share respectively among other losers. On the other hand, Dangote Sugar Plc led 27 others on the gainers chart with N0.98 to close at N20.97 per share, while ETI followed with N0.47 increase to close at 16.90 per share among other gainers.

Activities at the stock market Wednesday reversed to the downward side as investors in equities had their investment value depleted by N24 billion. The All-Share Index and the total market capitalisation of all listed stocks recorded a 0.38 and 0.39 per cent drop respectively.While the Index fell by 95.46 points to 25,074.85 points, from its preceding marks of 25, 170.31, the market capitalisation depreciated by N24 billion to N6.105 trillion from the previous N6.129 trillion.

However, turnover of trading appreciated to 527.5 million shares valued at N3.6 billion exchanged in 5,204 deals, over previous total volume 254.68 million shares valued at N2.10 billion exchanged in 6,417 deals.The sudden rise in volume in the day resulted from the heavy transaction in the banking sub-sector which saw huge volume of shares being traded in the stocks of Union Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and First Bank Plc.The three banks accounted for 54.8 per cent of the total market shares traded in that day, an indication that it is still sellers market. On the price movement chart, 33 stocks depreciated compared to 25 that appreciated in the day. Benue Cement Company Plc led the losers’ chart with N1.01 to close at N61.00. Per share. On the other hand, Guinness Nigeria Plc led on the gainers chart with N1.51 to close at N160.02 per share, while Nigerian Bottling Company followed with N0.38 increase to close at N31.45 per share among other gainers.

In what appears to be another major slid in investment in equities reared it’s head on Thursday, when performance indicators value fell to 24,776.04 basis points, thus equating the market value to where it was on March 3, 2009.  The dip in the market indicators was occasioned by heavy loses recorded by mostly all the blue chip companies’ in the days transaction. The market indicators deepening in percentage terms stood at 1.2 per cent drop.

Consequently, market capitalisation fell by N46 billion or 0.75 per cent, from N6,105 trillion on Wednesday to N6.059 trillion while the All-Share Index decreased by 298.81 points from 25,074.85 to 24,776.04 points.

On the price movement chart, 49 stocks suffered price depreciation, as UACN Nigeria Plc emerged the day’s highest price losers shedding 200 kobo, to close at N39.00 per share. However,  PZ Cusson Nigeria Plc led  on the gainers chart with 40 kobo to close at N30.40 per share. WestAfrican Portland Company Plc followed, with 34 kobo, to close at N39.35 per share.

Further analysis of Thursday transaction showed that the banking sub-sector remains the most active in volume terms with 153.9 million shares, worth N1.3 billion in 2,958 deals. The insurance sub-sector followed with 29.1 million units worth N33.5 million in 375 deals while the food/beverage & tobacco sub-sector ranked third with 15.7 million units, worth N294.6 in 539 deals.Trading in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank boosted activities in the banking sub-sector with 29.9 million shares worth N502.5 in 487 deals, followed by United Bank for Africa plc, which traded 26.3 million units worth N267.4 million in 262 deals.In all, 266.1 million shares worth N2.9 million were exchanged by investors in 5,916 deals.

The market however closed the week on Friday on a flat note as the market capitalisation fell by N41 billion while the index dropped by 166.74 points to close the week at a low of N6.018 trillion and 24,609.30 points respectively.On the Over the Counter Trade (OTC), a turnover of  418.31 million units worth N465.7 million in 3,345 deals was recorded last week, in contrast to a total of 315.8 million units valued at N346.5 million exchanged in 2,999 deals during the week ended Thursday, July 1, 2010. The most active bond (measured by turnover volume) was the 7th FGN Bond 2015 Series 2 with a traded volume of 67.15 million units valued at N59.6 million in 640 deals. This was followed by the 6th FGN Bond 2029 Series 3 with a traded volume of 56.3 million units valued at N84.3 million in 103 deals. Twenty of the available thirty-seven FGN Bonds were traded during the week, compared with 15 in the preceding week.