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All-Share Index Closes Flat, Volume Drops :: Monday 18/02/200

Though the day's trading saw more gaining stocks than losers (86:39), the high capitalisation of the major losers left a depressing impact that saw the all-share index closing flat at 63,584.46. Overall, the market's transactions tempo dropped, as trading volume and value closed lower by 25.34% and 34.21% respectively. Total trades also dropped by 22%. However, after two fairly racy weeks of trading, such slow-down would not be out of place.

Price Performance
Price losses hit a number large-cap companies, with Nestle leading with a N9.00 loss, just the day after it hit the N300.00 market again. Other major losses were CAP Plc N3.19, Cadbury N2.70, WAPCO N2.00, ETI N2.00, Guinness N1.99, Nigerian Breweries N1.70, Ashaka Cement N1.55 and Nigerian Flour Mills N1.39. Only three of the companies reported last week to have attracted the SEC's attention over their recent price appreciations suffered substantial loss in the day's trading. While Capoil went down N0.83 (4.99%), Afroil was down N1.30 (4.98%), while First Aluminum lost N0.24 (4.90%).

TOP SPEND BY INVESTORS: 18/02/2008
Coy	Value  (Naira Bn)	Volume  (units '000)	Price Change (N)		Closing (N)
AFRIBANK	1.969	74,536		0.07	26.40
INTERCONT	1.443	34,590		0.01	42.50
FIRSTBANK	1.318	26,390		-0.45	50.00
UBA	.677	13,512		1.18	50.99
MBENEFIT	.624	112,711		0.27	5.76
DIAMONDBNK	.576	26,313		-0.76	21.49
NSLTECH	.553	28,914		-0.98	18.72
OCEANIC	.471	16,242		-1.00	28.51
LINKASSURE	.458	86,876		-0.26	5.12
ZENITHBANK	.397	8,090		0.64	49.75
Read Full Trading Results here»

Price gains were led by petroleum sectors stocks Chevron, AP and Conoil, which went up N13.80, N13.65 and N5.00 respectively. AP defied the cloud over the alleged planned probe by the SEC to power up another 5%. Other major gains were in the construction sector where Julius Berger, Cappa & D'Alberto and Costain picked gains of N4.98, N3.44 and N2.04 respectively. Nigerian Bottling Company and Benue Cement were also strong on gains, rising N2.90 and N2.09 respectively. See the full price table here.

Transaction Volumes
While total volume dropped, insurance sector stocks still held on to the top spots as the most-wanted stocks. Mutual Benefits led with 113 million units. Linkage Assurance (87 million units), NEM Insurance (64 million), AIICO (61 million) , Equity Assurance (46 million) and International Energy N42 million) followed in that order. Only Afribank managed to squeeze into that range with a volume of 75 million units. The transaction values chart was however dominated by banks as shown above. Insurance stocks are lower-priced, bringing their transaction values below those of the banks.

Market News
Transcorp Put on Technical Suspension: Following the action of the federal government which announced the revocation of the sale of NITEL/M-TEL to Transcorp, that stock has been placed on suspension, apparently to protect investors from a free-fall of its price. Meanwhile, widespread adverse reactions have greeted the action by the government, believed to lack due process and to be capable of discouraging further inflow of investments. Transcorp too has declared it would do all necessary to protect the investors' interests in the company.

Crusader Insurance on Suspension too: This is sequel to their application to float a share offer.

Others: Vita Foam got marked down for its 25 kobo per share dividend, while 6,250 million shares of IBTC-Chartered, arising from the Stanbic merger, were listed. Also, Cutix Plc got 'promoted' to the1st tier segment of the official list, under the Engineering Technology sector.

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