By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Last week, the Nigeria stock market opened for four trading days as a result of the holiday declared by the federal government on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 to mark the inauguration day celebrations.
By the time things wrapped up on Friday, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the market capitalisation appreciated by 0.61 percent to close the week at 31,069.37 points and N13.685 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of the MERI Value Index, which depreciated by 0.14 percent while the ASeM Index closed flat.
During the week, a total turnover of 1.082billion shares worth N18.111 billion in 16,400 deals were traded by investors in contrast to a total of 1.698 billion shares valued at N57.895 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 24,328 deals.
It was observed that the financial services sector measured by volume led the activity chart with 809.990 million shares valued at N8.495 billion traded in 8,969 deals, contributing 74.84 percent and 46.91 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The ICT industry followed with 69.705 million shares worth N5.411 billion in 1,754 deals, while the third place was occupied by the healthcare sector with a turnover of 45.971 million shares worth N14.262 million in 139 deals.
Trading in UBA, Access Bank and Zenith Bank accounted for 351.014 million shares worth N3.737 billion in 4,088 deals, contributing 32.43 percent and 20.63 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
In the week, a total of 35 equities appreciated in price, higher than 30 in the previous week, while 24 equities depreciated in price, lower than 40 equities of the previous week, with 109 counters staying flat, higher than 98 equities recorded in the preceding week.
Adedapo Adesanya