The bulls drove the market for the week ended April 27, 2012 despite the drop in the turnover as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) performance indicators hit a seven and half months.

Market “watchers attributed the feat to an increased inflow of capital from foreign institutional investors due to the prospects of impressive returns on investments.

In specific terms, the NSE All Share Index, the barometer for measuring the performance of listed equities surged by 1.62 per cent to finish at 22,109.44 basis points as against 21,756.50 bass points recorded the previous week.

Also, the market capitalisation which measures the value of listed equities rose by N112.55 billion to close at N7.05 trillion compared with the N6.93 trillion recorded the preceding week, according NSE weekly report.

Consequently, the percentage year to date gains of the index and market capitalisation increased to 6.55 per cent and 7.94 per cent respectively.

As at August 16, 2011, according to transactions, the Market Capitalisation of traded equities stool at N7.290 trillion while the All Share Index was 22,792.06 basis points; however the year to date performance then was at a negative of 7.99 per cent lower than 2011 year opening level.

Market watchers said the bullish run is largely driven by speculation that the market recently inaugurated, were about to start operations in the market but the broker leaders should come on board to sustain the trend.

According to the NSE weekly report, three out of the four sectoral indices were on the upside at the end of the week under review. The NSE Consumer Goods index appreciated by 23.46 points to close at 1,787.72 while the NSE Banking Index added 5.78 points to finish at 319.73.

Similarly NSE Oil/Gas Index garnered 13.19 points to close higher at 192.53 while the NSE Insurance Index dipped by 0.77 points to finish lower at 124.94.

At the close of market last week, a total of 1.916 billion units of shares valued at N16.664 billion were exchanged by investors in 23,143 transactions down from a recorded volume of 2.049 billion units of shares worth N15.736 billion traded in 19,783 deals the previous week.

The most active in volume terms during the reviewed week was the banking sub-sector of the Financial Services Sector which recorded a turnover of 1.520 billion units of shares valued at N11.940 billion in 13,265 deal Volume in the banking subsector, the report said, was largely driven by activity in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank and \First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) which accounted for 875.54 million units of shares. This represents 57.59 percent, 52.91 per cent and 46.69 per cent of the turnover recorded by the subsector, sector and total market turnover for the week respectively.

The Insurance Carriers, broker Services Subsector of the Financial Service Sector boosted by activity in the shares of AIICO Insurance emerged second on the week’s activity table having recorded a subsector turnover of 47.755 million units of shares valued at N23.918 million in 532 trades.

Vivian-Peace Nwinaene