HENATES

After going down on Thursday April 18, 2019, to close the 4 day week at 30,086.31, the All share index at the Nigerian stock exchange eased marginally by 0.03% to 30,076.0 on Tuesday after the easter holidays. However, this was despite there being more price gains (20) than losers (17) and in between there were 11 price changes too minor to matter. The ASI declined too occurred in spite of N2 or 1.06% per share increase the share price of Dangote Cement, the market's leader by capitalisation. DangCem closed with the 2nd highest gain while recording 21 deals for 0.037m shares worth N6.625m. The lead gain was recorded by 11 PLC ( erstwhile Mobil Nigeria) as it found and closed at N179.9 per share, up N4.9 or 2.8% on April 18's N175 per share. The only other major price gainer was Dangote Flour up N1.05 or 9.81% per share in 145 deals involving 8.861m shares worth N97.960m. Other top 5 price gainers were FBN Holdings up  N0.35 or 4.58% per share and Vitafoam which clos...

The year 2018 ended with a huge claim on Britam Holdings PLC which it could not absorb: Loss of Ksh 6.90 on each Ksh 100 income within the year. This compares very unfavourably with profit of Ksh 2.69 on each Ksh 100 income in 2017. Britam Holdings is one company with very many sources of income but in 2018 all the major streams failed to deliver the goods. Gross Premium had increased by 4.43% to Ksh 24,325.1m but 8.78% growth in reinsurance to Ksh 3263.5m reduced the final  earned premium  to Ksh 21,061.7m, up only 3.76%. With this marginal growth in its core income, and relatively poor performance from some other streams, total income ended up by only 1.91% to Ksh 32,748.2m. The further slow down came from 25.5% decline in Other income to Ksh 195.1m; 16.5% decrease in property income to Ksh 507.2m and 13.1% drop in fund management fees to Ksh 661.1m Growth in other income streams were fairly OK but not good enough to counter the downward pull of the poor streams. For ex...

The bond market was more active and equity just barely up at the Nairobi Securities Exchange as the 4-day week drew to a close on Thursday April 18, 2019. At the bond market, traded value closed the week at Ksh 19bn in spite of holy day on Friday compared to Ksh 13bn the previous 5 day week. The high point of the 4 days was Monday when 88 deals worth Ksh 6.34bn was recorded and it continued to ease down daily after that. It dropped to Ksh 5.416bn in 78 deals on Tuesday; Ksh 4.423bn  in 79 deals on Wednesday before closing at Ksh 3.167bn in 88 deals by Thursday. Trading activity during the 4 days at the bond segment was clearly in contrast to traded volume and value at the equity segment which dropped to 34.6m shares worth Ksh 1.2bn compared to 78.7m shares worth Ksh 2.3bn the previous week. Traded volume through the week did not 12m shares any day of the 4 days with top line being 11.451m shares traded in 1050 deals worth Ksh 290.348m on Tuesday and hit week low on Wednesday ...

Propelled by more positive outlook, the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended 4 day week on Thursday with the All share index up 1.74% on previous week's level. It closed Thursday, the last trading day because of Easter Holidays, at 30,086.31, up 0.39% on Wednesday's 29,970.86. The week had taken off with 0.14% drop to 29518.85 on Monday but recovered from then on till the week's end. It rose to 29746.2 on Tuesday then further to 29970.86 by Wednesday. The Thursday rally was driven by Dangote Cement as it paced 25 price gains that overwhelmed 13 price drops even though margins of drop were higher. DangCem was the sole equity with up to N1 per share as it rose at this bar or 0.53% per share to close at N188 per share after hitting day high of N190 and low of N189 per share compared to N188 on Wednesday. DangCem witnessed 37 deals through which 0.291m shares were exchanged for N55.166m. As a matter of fact, 17 more price gains were recorded within the day but they were to...

At the Ghana Stock Exchange, the composite index closed Thursday April 18, 2018 at 2391.97 compared to 2401.18 on Wednesday. By implication, because Friday is a holiday, the GCI dropped by 0.58% in a 4 day week when compared 2405.82 with which it closed on Friday April 12, 2019. Through the 4 days, the GCI only rallied once on Wednesday April 17 to 2401.11. It dropped to 2400.35 on Monday then eased some to 2396.18 on Tuesday   before the exceptional rise on Wednesday. Thus the low for the week was Friday's 2391.97 and it was recorded as 4 price drops and 1 gain occurred The lone price gain was by Ghana Commercial Bank while recording exchange of 6500 shares valued at GHs 25,740. GCB closed at the last deal price of GHs 3.96 per share up GHs 0.01 on GHs 3.95 per share on Friday.What's more, it may gain more next because offer price jumped to GHs 4.5 per share after the last deal. Top price loss was Ecobank Ghana's GHs 0.2 per share recorded as it closed at the l...

On Wednesday April 17 2018, the Ghana Composite index at the Ghana Stock Exchange finally recovered from days of closing down but as price gainers and losers came to 2 and 3 respectively. The GCI closed at 2401.11 up on 2396.18 on Tuesday and compared to 2400.35 on Monday. Of the price loserss, Standard Chartered Bank paced with GHs 0.5 per share decline as its 160 shares were traded at GHs 19 per share as against GHs 19.5 on Tuesday.  This was a new low for SCB but offer price edged upwards by day's end to GHs 19.49 per share leading to mismatch as bid stayed firm at the closing price. Ghana Commercial Bank shed GHs 0.013 per share to close at  GHs 3.95 per share after recording deals for 2600 units at GHs 3.96 per share with which it closed the previous day. However, the gap between offer and bid prices widened resulting in mismatch of GHs 3.9 per share on bid and 3.96 on offer. The other price drop was by Guinness Ghana as 100 of its shares were traded at GHs 2.18 per share, dow...

Inflation rate in Nigeria is still not in a hurry to drop below 11% year on year. According to figures for March on Composite Price index released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by March 2019 the all items inflation rate eased to 11.25 % year on year compared to 11.31% in February The good news apparently is that it is going down at least after leaping to all time high during 2016 depression and early 2017 till it started dropping  January 2017. For a while the decline was fairly high but it has become a very slow decrease since May 2018 when it finally crossed from the 12% range to 11%. The March easing was driven other items except food the index of which actually rose to 13.5% year on year from February's 13.47%. Urban inflation also continues to be above the national average and in March says the NBS, it was 11.54% year on year though lower than February's 11.59%. In contrast, rural index by March stood at 10.99% year on year compared to 11.05% previously...