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Market Closes Lower, Oil Stocks Lead Both Gains and Losses ::
Monday 21/01/2008

The NSE traded on a slightly weak note today that saw the market close with a drop in the All-share index, market capitalisation, volume of transactions as well as total transactions value. The All-share nudged down 24 points or 0.04% while volume turnover was down by 32.37%. The value of total trades followed the downward trend, dropping 34.88%.

Petroleum stocks Chevron and AP led the price gains that saw other 72 stocks heading up. They closed N255.57 and N270.00 respectively, with AP up by 3.85% (N10.00). Price strength by low-cap stocks Japaul Oil, Big Treat, Chellaram and Afroil continued as they each picked over 50 kobo gain in today's trading. Chellaram, for instance, has risen steadily from below N2.00 at the beginning of June, 2007 to hit N13.65 at the close of the day's trading. Transcorp picked a gain of N0.08 to close at N2.98. If comments by the Chairman of the company before the House Committee today, about positive recovery prospects for the company are well-received by the market, it is likely to see further firming up of price in the weeks ahead.

Total and Oando were in the lead in price losses, shedding N9.00 and N6.02 respectively. A number of insurance companies took a significant hit too: WAPIC (N0.35) Standard Alliance (N0.23), Mutual Benefits (N0.20), LASACO (N0.19), International Energy (N0.14) and NEM Insurance (N0.06). In all, about 47 stocks went down in the day's trading.

TOP TRADES - 21/01/2008
Company	Value N'Bn	Units ('000)	Price Change (N)		Closing (N)
ZENITHBANK	1.084	23,519		0.00	46.09
INTERCONT	1.001	25,097		-1.35	39.55
OCEANIC	.412	14,167		-0.01	28.99
FIRSTBANK	.370	8,714		0.20	42.50
FIDELITYBK	.3402	26,349		-0.30	12.70
DANGSUGAR	.313	7,552		-1.59	41.40
DIAMONDBNK	.289	12,488		0.20	23.00
AFRIBANK	.284	10,844		0.84	27.00
FCMB	.282	14,896		-0.54	18.99
GUARANTY	.246	7,226		1.06	34.72
Read Full Trading Results here»

The insurance sector still led in transaction volumes, with Equity Assurance, NEM Insurance and LASACO taking the top three spots. The rest of the top ten came from banking, more insurance companies and Transcorp. Value of transactions however had the banks firmly topping the table, with only Dangote Sugar as the non-bank entrant.

The market may yet be under the spell of public offers which tend to such funds out of the secondary market. Though the performance of the market was still robust in 2007, the moderating impact of the series of public offers, especially by financial services companies, was certainly felt. Though those offers have continued, they are unlikely to get as persistent as in 2007.

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