FEB 7, 2019: NIGERIA: EASY LEAP FOR ALL SHARE INDEX

On Thursday February 7, 2019 at the Nigerian stock exchange, as the All share index rose by 1.98% to 31,433.49, the question was why not be a higher percentage?

It was a day to search for price drops even 13 of them were actually recorded compared to 24 gains. 

The gainers not only overwhelmed the losers by share number, they did too in terms of price change and the number of top market capitalisation companies involved.

No price decline was up to N0.50 per share while minimum top 5 price gain was above N1 pee share. To add to the pressure upwards on the ASI virtually every price loser was lightweight in terms of market capitalisation, the base statistics for the index.

Nestlé Nigeria after going solo up N40 per share on Wednesday, paced price gains again on Thursday but this time, with N10 or 0.68% top up.

While 17 deals were struck for 0.089m shares worth N136.522m, Nestle simply stuck to N1470 per share till the end as against N1460 per share previously.

Guaranty Trust Bank then trailed it with N3.3 per share gain or 9.51% as 2nd ranked 452 deals were sealed for 31.440m shares worth 2nd rated N1.148bn.

Other major price gains were Forte Oil's N2.7 or 10% per share rise amidst 50 deals involving 0.312m shares worth N9.241m; and Dangote Cement which led price drop previous day with N1.5 per share.

This time around, DangCem added N2 or 1.06% per share accompanied by 173 deals for 3.100 m shares valued at N595.213m.

Zenith Bank ranked among the top 5 by price gain but its significance showed more in terms of number of deals and traded value. Up N1.65 or 7.24% per share, it recorded leading 501 deals for 2nd ranked 63.434m offload with value day high traded value of N1.485bn.

On the other hand, top price drop was Con Oil's N0.25 or 1.08% per share decline to N23 per share from Tuesday's N23.25 per share.

In all 4047 deals were struck for 436.748m shares worth N5.880bn compared to 3319 deals involving 359.091m shares worth N4.828bn on Thursday.

Top traded volume was unexpected 136.504m shares of UBA offloaded in 400 deals worth N987.075m while closing up by N0.15 per share.

Other major traded volumes for the day include 44.434m shares offloaded in Access Bank in 187 deals worth N277.870m  while gaining N0.1 per share and FBN Holdings' 31.486m shares exchanged in 374 deals valued at N236.262m.