By Michael Eboh
The newly appointed interim administrator of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr Emmanuel Ikazoboh, has outlined a four-point agenda geared towards the recovery of the Nigerian capital market.

Top of the agenda is to stop the current slide in the market. He also said he had responsibility to restore the integrity of the Nigerian Capital Market and that the back-up office, including the administration, finance and IT was put back to shape.

Besides he intends to pursue the ongoing transformation agenda agenda until the attainment of a world class capital market and emergence of a new Director-General.

Ikazoboh also said he has met with a number of staff of the NSE and been assured of the cooperation in attaining its mandate of achieving a world class capital market.“I want to say that every member of the exchange has been cooperative and all are enthusiastic that the market does not slide any more,” he said.

However, there was drama on the Lagos trading floor of the NSE, Thursday, as officials of SEC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, accompanied by a number of mobile police officers and plain clothes security operatives were on hand to enforce the sack of Mrs. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke..

A source at the NSE informed Vanguard that activities on the floor commenced about a few minutes to seven, with increased movement of persons and a series of meetings by officials of SEC, NSE and the newly appointed Interim Administrator of the NSE.

Calm returned to the Lagos office of the NSE, Friday, with only a few security operatives seen in other organisations around the area.

As a result of SEC’s action, investors lost N25.78 billion on their investments on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as at the close of trading for the week ended, Friday, August 6, 2010.

This was as a result of a decline in the indices for measuring the value of investment on the NSE — the market capitalisation and All-share index, by 0.41 per cent each.

The capitalisation, which opened the week, Monday, at N6.320 trillion dipped by N25.78 billion from N6.294 trillion at the end of trading, Friday, while the index shed 105.39 basis points to close the week at 25,738.79 points from 25,844.18 points.

Despite the crisis in the market, a number of companies posted impressive financial performance. Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc in its unaudited result for the half year ended, June 30, 2010, posted a gross earnings of N28.376 billion, as against N27.235 billion in the comparable period of 2009.

It recorded a profit after tax of N5.294 million compared with N5,542 million in 2009.
Also, in its unaudited result for  half year ended 30th June 2010, Oceanic Bank International Plc, posted a gross earnings of N64.266 billion, as against N69.46 billion in the comparable period of 2009. while its profit after tax stood at N8.24 billion compared with loss after tax of N40.93 billion in 2009.

Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, in its unaudited result for the half year ended, June 30, 2010 recorded a turnover of N31.94 billion, as against N32.45 billion in the comparable period of 2009. Its Profit after tax stood at N2.096 billion compared with N644.3 million in 2009.

In its audited result for the year ended March 31, 2010, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc announced a turnover of N10.22 billion as against N8.53 billion in 2009, while its profit after tax stood at N410.2 million compared with N236.3 million in 2009.

The Board of Directors of the company is recommending a dividend of N0.80 per share and bonus of one ordinary share for every five ordinary shares held by its shareholders.

Also, equity trading dipped by 47.87 per cent, as a turnover of 1.1 billion shares valued at N9.11 billion was recorded in 27,401 deals in the week under review, in contrast to last week’s turnover of 2.11 billion shares valued at N17.7 billion in 33,067 deals.

A heavy transaction was recorded in banks’ shares, as trading in the sub-sector accounted for 43.59 per cent of the market turnover, with 479.5 million shares valued at N4.1 billion in 14,606 deals.

Shares of Zenith Bank Plc were the most patronised in the sub-sector, trading 91.82 million shares valued at N1.26 billion in 1,839 deals, United Bank for Africa Plc followed with the exchange of 43.43 million shares valued at N460.02 million in ,394 deals and First Bank of Nigeria Plc recorded 43.41 million shares valued at N583.16 million in 3,103 deals.

The Insurance sub-sector followed on the sectorial analysis, accounting for 26.27 per cent of the market turnover with 289 million shares valued at N227.6 million in 1,004 deals.