By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A turnover of 1.115bn shares, worth N13.817bn in 16,083 deals, were traded, last week, by investors on the floor of the exchange in contrast to a total of 1.124bn shares, valued at N13.839bn, that exchanged hands, last week, in 15,625 deals.
The NSE All-Share Index and market capitalisation appreciated by 1.11 per cent and 1.13 per cent to close the week at 27,756.67 and N9.535trn respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher during the week, with the exception of the NSE industrial goods index that declined by 0.24 per cent while the NSE ASeM Index closed flat.
A total of 28 equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 27 equities of the previous week.
A sum of 31 equities depreciated in price, higher than 25 equities of the previous week, while 121 equities remained unchanged, lower than 128 equities recorded in the preceding week.
The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 993.823m shares, valued at N7.279bn traded in 10,135 deals, thus, contributing 89.11 and 52.68 to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The consumer goods industry followed with 48.047m shares worth N4.365bn in 2,682 deals.
The third place was occupied by the conglomerates industry with a turnover of 31.648m shares, worth N109.579m in 487 deals.
Trading in the top three equities, namely, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Diamond Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 394.511m shares, worth N4.397b in 3,142 deals, contributing 35.37 per cent and 31.82 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s overnight naira interbank lending rate eased to around 16 per cent on Friday, down from about 20 per cent, last week, on improved naira cash liquidity after the disbursal of July budgetary allocations to government agencies.
About N250bn belonging to states and local governments from the July federation account allocation hit the banking system, this week, providing liquidity.
Total banks surplus cash with the CBN stood at N118b on Friday, compared with N62bn last week.
The naira closed flat at 305 to the dollar on the interbank market on Friday, but fell to 425 a dollar on the black market from 420 a dollar previously.
“We expect rate to ease below the 16 percent next week, unless central bank sells more treasury bills to reduce cash in the system,” a dealer said.
