WEEK 41: STAR DIAMOND AT NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

Lead trade in Diamond Bank PLC daily throughout week 41 just ended yesterday Friday October 13, 2017 was the dominant feature at the Nigerian stock exchange as number of deals rose by 26.5% to 18,409; traded volume came to 1555m, up 4.62% and as traded value dropped by 10.6% to N13.5bn from week 40's N15.1bn.

Even on Friday when only 25.04m shares in Diamond bank changed hands in 255 deals worth N27.7m, it still topped traded volume for the day resulting in 64% drop to 159.6m shares sold on Friday.

In the end, 856.45m shares of Diamond bank were sold within the week in 5th ranked 1185 deals and N858.43m worth.

No other equity had volume trade in the range within the week with Zenith bank trailing with leading 1710 deals for 75.44m shares worth 3rd ranked N1905.4m.

That there was a marked drop in traded value inspire of the volume was because Diamond bank was not a high priced equity, indeed it just managed to gain N0.09 or 8.57% per share on Friday to be 2nd only to Champion Breweries in terms of % gains for the day.

Top traded value was recorded in Nestlé Nigeria which hit a new high within the week and witnessed a total of 198 deals for 1.72m units worth N2,134.23m just ahead of Nigerian Breweries N2,092.25m worth in 561 deals involving 12.40m shares.

Week 41 came up with 41 price gains and 23 drops with the gainers led in Naira terms by Nestlé Nigeria, up N17.49 per share, Total Nigeria with N12 per share gain and Seplat Petroleum which closed yesterday at N480 per share, up N7.51 on previous Friday.

Price losers were not only very much fewer but also eased more marginally with Nigerian Breweries leading with N5 per share drop followed by La Farge Africa, down N1.31 per share.

None of these paced price changes yesterday as the last trading day in the week. International Breweries led Naira gainers yesterday with N1.99 top up per share while Forte Oil led price drops by closing N2.00 per share down.

The All shares index firmed up some more yesterday closing 0.32% up at 36,848.17 after punctuating previous days' drops with 0.22% increase on Thursday.

This was as Friday ended with 28 price gainers and 13 losers and interestingly, the ASI rose in spite of N0.50 or 0.22% per share drop in Dangote Cement.