•GTCO, UBA, FBN lead stock trading By Taofik Salako, Deputy Group Business Editor
Investors appeared to be taking positions in Nigeria’s leading banks ahead of the release of the third quarter earnings.
Trading in the shares of three top tier banks- Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), United Bank for Africa and FBN Holdings accounted for nearly half of transactions at the Nigerian stock market, in clear bargain-hunting that deepened activities at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
Turnover at the NGX jumped by about 51 per cent as demand for top-tier banks drove the contribution of bank-led financial services sector to more than three quarters of total market turnover.
Nigerian equities also rallied to close weekend with net capital gains of N10 billion, with average return at 0.05 per cent. Aggregate market capitalisation of all quoted equities at the NGX rose from its week’s opening value of N20.290 trillion to close weekend at N20.300 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI) – the value-based common index that tracks all share prices at the NGX, closed weekend at 38,962.28 points as against its opening index of 38,943.87 points.
The trio of FBN Holdings, UBA and GTCO accounted for 626.958 million shares worth N5.766 billion in 2,526 deals, contributing 48.58 percent and 41.42 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value.
Total turnover rose to 1.290 billion shares worth N13.921 billion in 16,745 deals last week, representing 50.7 percent and 29.47 percent increase on a total of 856.289 million shares valued at N10.752 billion traded in 15,663 deals two weeks ago.
Quoted companies at the NGX are required to submit their quarterly report not later than 30 days after the end of the period.
The financial services industry led the activity chart with 978.172 million shares valued at N8.300 billion traded in 8,716 deals; thus contributing 75.80 percent and 59.62 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value. The consumer goods industry followed with 62.006 million shares worth N1.187 billion in 2,546 deals while conglomerates industry ranked third with a turnover of 49.055 million shares worth N126.288 million in 589 deals.
Also, a total of 9,728 units of exchange traded products (ETPs) valued at 437,821.70 were traded last week in 18 deals compared with a total of 106,810 units valued at N1.852 million traded in 21 deals two weeks ago.
At the debt segment, a total of 60,929 bond units valued at N62.810 million were traded in 27 deals […]