Insurance, oil & gas stock indices rode the storm in a week of bears at Nigeria’s equities market

The four-day trading week, which ended Thursday, saw the insurance and oil and gas indices appreciating in a week dominated by losses.

According to the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) weekly report on the equities market, the NSE all-share index and market capitalization depreciated by 3.12 percent week-on-week to close the week at 35,504.62 points and N12.237 trillion respectively.

Similarly, all other market indices finished lower during the week with the exception of the NSE insurance and NSE oil/gas indices that appreciated by 1.90 percent and 0.29 percent respectively, while the NSE ASeM index closed flat.

The report also indicated that a total turnover of 998.973 million shares worth N11.455 billion in 13,626 deals were traded in the week under review by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.538 billion shares valued at N24.218 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 19,187 deals.

The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 838.247 million shares valued at N5.134 billion traded in 7,884 deals; thus contributing 83.91 percent and 44.82 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The consumer goods industry followed with 45.589 million shares worth N3.225 billion in 2,759 deals. The third place was occupied by conglomerates industry with a turnover of 35.563 million shares worth N60.673 million in 627 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely – Custodian and Allied Plc, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 383.065 million shares worth N829.743 million in 650 deals, contributing 38.34 percent and 7.24 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Nineteen (19) equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than thirty-two (32) in the previous week. Forty-eight (48) equities depreciated in price, higher than forty (40) equities of the previous week, while one hundred and four (104) equities remained unchanged higher than one ninety-nine (99) equities recorded in the preceding week.

Also traded during the week were a total of 86,063 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N838,754.79 executed in 8 deals compared with a total of 390 units valued at N6,511.60 transacted last week in five deals.