Confidence trickle into the Nigerian stock market as bears lose ground (03-2009)

The reversal of the max imum band for down ward movement of share prices to 5 percent by the Nigerian Stock Exchange has led to gradual return of confidence as evidenced by the upward movement of market indices.
Emmanuel Eze, managing director, DBSL Security said that the bearish trend is a normal mechanism of the market, adding that “the only difference is that the downward trend was rather prolong” 
Eze said that investors are returning to the market even as he described last week’s trading as remarkable because of the massive number of stocks that appreciated. In his view, “the rate of confidence on the trading floor is now between 75 to 80 per cent”. 
Meanwhile, 53 stocks appreciated in price on Friday, higher than the 41 stocks in the preceding day. Guinness Nigeria plc led on the gainers’ table with a gain of N3.88 to close at N81.53 per share while Nigerian breweries plc followed with a gain of N1.70 to close at N35.87 per share. 
On the other hand, 30 stocks depreciated in price last Friday, lower than the 44 in the preceding day. Julius Berger Nigeria plc led on the price losers’ chart, dropping by N3.56 to close at N67.78 while Benue Cement company plc followed with a loss of N2.05 to close at N39.12 per share. 
Specifically, market capitalisation of the 197 first-tier equities closed slightly higher at N7.54 trillion. Similarly, the NSE all share index appreciated by 1.4 per cent to close on Friday at 34,351.81 basis points. 
A turnover of 452.43 million shares worth N3.534 billion exchanged by investors in 10,048 deals last Fridays’ trading, compared to a total of 780.5 million shares valued at N5.5 billion in 11,368 deals. 
The banking sub-sector was the most active on Friday’s trading 275.131 million shares worth N2.64 billion in 5,726 deals just as insurance sub-sector, boosted by activity in the shares of Investment and allied Assurance with a turnover of 45.432 million shares N23.2 million in 83 deals. On Thursday, the Banking sub-sector led on the activity chart and was followed by Insurance sub-sector.