Menu

The benchmark index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) – the All Share Index (ASI) – fell by 13 percent to close at 23,514.04 points at the end of trading on Friday, January 15, 2015.

The index has been plummeting since the start of the year as bearish sentiments overcome the stock market on concerns of declining oil prices, which have fallen below $30. The NSE triggered the circuit breaker on Friday to prevent the ASI from falling steeply on a trading day.

On a year-to-date basis, the ASI has fallen by 17.9 percent.

At the end of trading on week ended January 15th, all sector indexes recorded sharp declines. The banking index plunged by 18.67 percent to close at 207.66 points, the insurance index fell by 4.21 percent to close at 135.19 points, the consumer goods index lost 9.05 percent to close at 611.44 points, the oil and gas index shed 4.93 percent to close at 333.58 points, and the industrial index weakened by 16.04 percent to close at 1,827.41 points.

A total of 1.46 billion shares worth N14.17 billion in 15,164 deals were traded during the week, compared with 899.604 million shares valued at 7.67 billion that were traded in 14,164 deals the previous week.

At the end of trading last week, market capitalization dropped by 13 percent to N8.087 trillion compared with N9.296 trillion recorded at the end of the previous week.

The financial services industry led the trading chart last week, with 1.287 billion shares valued at N8.953 billion traded in 10,020 deals. The sector contributed 88.17 percent of total equity turnover and 63.20 percent of total value.

The consumer goods industry followed with 59.832 million shares worth N3.072 billion in 2,165 deals. The third place was occupied by the conglomerates industry with a turnover of 56.606 million shares worth N152.949 billion in 695 deals.

The top three traded equities – Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and FBN Holdings – accounted for 693.443 million shares worth N7.719 billion in 5,960 deals, contributing 47.51 percent and 54.49 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Chibuike is Financial Nigeria's frontier markets analyst