Market turnover shrinks to 885m shares

 … As Union Bank explains non-payment of dividend

By Omodele Adigun and Chineye Anuforo

MARKET turnover tumbled by close to seven billion shares last week on the La­gos floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange(NSE) as less than 900 million shares were transacted, a far cry from over 8billion traded the previous week.

At the close of business at the weekend, a turnover of 885.367 million shares worth N5.829 billion in 13,870 deals were traded in contrast to the 8.054 billion shares valued at N13.328 billion that changed hands the previ­ous week in 15,212 deals.

The Financial Services In­dustry led the activity chart with 747.817 million shares valued at N3.832 billion and traded in 8,768 deals to account for 84.46 per cent and 65.73per cent to the to­tal equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 45.517 mil­lion shares worth N977.579 million . The third place was occupied by the Agriculture Industry with a turnover of 32.313 million shares worth N48.460 million in 247 deals.

Trading in the stocks of Zenith Bank Plc, GT Bank and UBA accounted for 290.319 million shares worth N3.015 billion in 3,795 deals, contributing 32.79 per cent and 51.72 per cent to the total equity volume and value respectively.

As for bonds, a total of 3,241 units of FGN and corporate bonds valued at N3.579 million were traded in four deals compared to a total of 28,280 units of F GN and state government bonds valued at N29.572 million transacted the previ­ous week in eight deals.

The NSE All-Share Index and market capitalization ap­preciated by 0.53 per cent to close the week at 24,850.11 and N8.548 trillion respec­tively.

Similarly, all other Indices finished higher during the week, with the exception of the NSE Consumer Goods Index, NSE Oil/Gas Index and the NSE Lotus Index that declined by 0.83 per cent, 0.73per cent and 0.77 per cent respectively.

Thirty-five equities ap­preciated in price during the week, higher than the 26 equities of the previous week. Thirty-two equities depreciated in price, lower than 41equities of the previ­ous week, while one hundred and twenty-two (122) equi­ties remained unchanged same as the previous week.

Meanwhile, the manage­ment of Union Bank Plc last week explained that giving its negative retain earnings in the last four years, it cannot pay dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2015.

Its Chief Financial Offi­cer, Oyinkan Adewale, who disclosed this during the bank’s Fact Behind the Fig­ure presentation at the Nige­rian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos, said the bank had to abide by the regulatory directive which stipulates non-payment of dividend by company with negative retain earnings until its finan­cial status changes.

“As long as we have nega­tive retain earnings and as long as the regulatory laws of Nigeria prevent you from paying dividend when you have negative retain earning, until we are able to resolve that with the regulators, there is absolutely nothing Union Bank can do about paying of dividend”, he said.