By Michael Eboh
Expert in the Nigerian capital market has attributed the bearish run recorded in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), last week, to uncertainty trailing the conclusion of the audit of banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), especially the recent publication of the names of debtors to the five troubled banks.

It will be recalled that the CBN, last week released the names of debtors to the five banks identified by it as been in a crisis situation. The banks are Unity Bank Plc, Equitorial Bank Plc, BankPHB Plc, Wema Bank Plc and Spring Bank Plc.

Trading in the NSE was bedeviled by a continuous bearish run, leading to a decline in the total value of listed equities by N227.82 billion.

Specifically, the value of listed equities, represented by the market capitalisation, depreciated by 4.20 per cent from N5.420 trillion at which it opened the week, to close at N5.192 trillion, while the All-share index, another key market indices, also depreciated by 4.20 per cent to close at 22,293.53 points from 23,271.69 points at which it opened the week.

According to Mr. Chinenyem Anyanwu, Managing Director, Dependable Securities Limited, the decline recorded in the market indices for the most part of the week under review, was as a result of massive dumping of shares by bank debtors to raise funds to settle their indebtedness to the banks so as to avoid being harassed by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

He further identified other factors responsible for the decline to include profit-taking by investors, following the slight improvement recorded in the prices of the stocks in the last couple of weeks and investors’ decision to cash in on opportunities in the money market, brought about by the attractive interest rates given by banks.

He said, “The decline is due to profit-taking, large sales by banks debtors to avert EFCC harassments and migration by investors to the money market to take advantage of high interest rate on bank deposit.”

Meanwhile, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc recorded the most share price loss, in the week under review, dropping by N10.23 to close at N94.77 per share, Oando Plc followed with a loss of N4.00 to close at N88.20 per share and Chevron Oil Nigeria Plc dipped by N3.49 to close at N66.47 per share.

Other share price losers include: Guinness Nigeria Plc N2.95, Ecobank Nigeria Plc N2.10, Zenith Bank Plc N1.45, United Bank for Africa Plc N1.40, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc N1.10, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc N1.04, Benue Cement Company Plc N1.00 among others.

On the contrary, Total Nigeria Plc recorded the most share price gain, rising by N10.14 to close at N160.12 per share, followed by Conoil Plc with a gain of N6.99 to close at N39.48 per share and Nestle Nigeria Plc garnered N3.01 to close at N211.01 per share.

Other share price gainers include: Nigerian Bottling Company Plc N2.57, Nigerian Breweries Plc N1.51, Beco Petroleum Products Plc N0.77, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc N0.57, African Petroleum Plc N0.45, RT. Briscoe (Nigeria) Plc N0.33, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated N0.30 among others.

The declining trend continued in equity trading, as a turnover of 2.82 billion shares valued at N19.1 billion was recorded in the week under review in 35,025 deals, dropping by 11.88 per cent from the previous week’s turnover of 3.2 billion shares valued at N22.11 billion in 33,985 deals.

Despite the skepticism trailing the banking sub-sector, it continued to attract the most patronage, accounting for 51.42 per cent of the market turnover, with 1.45 billion shares valued at N12.5 billion in 19,784 deals. Access Bank Plc recorded the highest transaction in the sub-sector, trading 324.03 million shares valued at N2.29 billion in 1,073 deals, United Bank for Africa Plc followed with the exchange of 195.32 million shares valued at N2.54 billion in 1,452 deals and GTBank Plc recorded 112.26 million shares valued at N1.65 billion in 2,252 deals.

The Insurance sub-sector followed on the sectorial analysis, accounting for 20.92 per cent of the market turnover, with 590.02 million shares valued at N640.42 million in 2,732 deals.