Dealers Perspective - 031008
Posted Friday, October 3, 2008
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The Nigerian equities market witnessed yet another lull period as major market indicators strode southward and end in bear’s camp. On a day which saw the ratio of advancers to decliners to be 1:15.5, the ASI lost 247.49 points to close at 45,712.41 whilst the market capitalization declined by US$0.45billion to close at US$83.45 billion. However, values of transactions experienced a surge as the indicator increased by 18.79% and closed at $16.62 million.



Juli Plc today released its un-audited results for the half-year ended 30th June, 2008. Turnover increased by 34.66% to N137.9 million however, PBT decreased by 30.57% to N6.211million and PAT decreased by 30.57% to N6.211million loss from N4.757 million loss in the corresponding period of 2007. In spite of the unimpressive performance of the company, the stock closed flat at the end of today’s trading session. This may not be unconnected to the low volume traded on the stock.



The downturn in the market may not be unconnected to the investors’ apathy, loss of confidence and the wearing out of the euphoria generated by the announcements of recent palliative measures. The market seems to be waiting for another bail out from government before taking positions as previous rally which was not sustainable occurred due to government intervention. In our opinion, the market may continue to drop till we get to a real end of this long drawn bear run and a cleansing for the market which may set the stage for true sustainable and healthy growth in the market.



Index was down by 54 basis pts on 6,492 trades. Average size of trade was US$2,560 with total value of US$16.62m. Market cap closed at US$83.45 billion.



Overall, there were 4 gainers and 62 losers and 60 unchanged. The Banking sector led the volume chart followed by the Insurance sector and both accounted for 83.89% of total volume traded.



Spring Bank Plc traded 144.39 million shares to top the overall volume chart. Other stocks that closed in the top echelon were Investment and Allied Insurance, Fidelity Bank, Chams and FTN Cocoa.



* Net Bid: Spring Bank and Chams.

* Net Offer: Investment and Allied Insurance, Lasaco, Afribank, Transcorp and FCMB.

* Top Gainers: BOC GAS, DAARCOMM, CHAMS and WAPCO.

* Top Losers: FCMB, Guinness, GTB, UBA and Zenith Bank.
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