Precisely, the volume of traded bonds rose by 31.8 per cent from a total of 144.72 million units valued at N164.9 billion exchanged in the preceding week.

Although, there were no transactions in the Federal Government development stocks, State Government bonds and industrial loans/preference stocks sectors, the 6th FGN Bond 2029 Series 3 was the most active bond of the 23 traded bonds with a volume of 62.71 million units valued at N73.8 billion, followed by the 5th FGN Bond 2018 Series 2 with 35.8 million units worth N38.9 billion.

Furthermore, investors increased their stake on shares in the equities sector, as a turnover of 2.11 billion shares worth N14 billion were exchanged, in contrast to a total of 2.1 billion shares valued at N10.14 billion traded in the previous week.

With many highly capitalised stocks enjoying varying levels of share price appreciation, corporate performance indicators of the Exchange rose by 3.8 per cent, the All-share index, which opened the week at 21,973.96 points closed higher at 23, 327.04 points, while market capitalisation rose to N.35 trillion from N5.15 trillion on Monday.

Similarly, three of the four sectoral indices appreciated. For instance, the NSE food/beverages index rose by 8.2 per cent to close at 476.10 points, while the NSE banking index rose by 12.45 per cent to close at 376.58.

Furthermore, the NSE oil/gas index rose by 2.3 per cent to close at 320.35, while the NSE insurance index dropped by 1.3 per cent to close at 314.13 points.

On the week's price movement chart, Total Nigeria Plc led 61 other stocks on the gainers' table with a gain of 623 kobo to close at N131.00 per share followed by Benue Cement Company Plc with 408 kobo to close at N38.00 per share, while Oando Plc added 400 kobo to close at N94.00 per share.

Some of the other price gainers include, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Conoil Plc, Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc, and Nigeria Breweries Plc, all of which added 398 kobo, 347 kobo, 335 kobo, 240 kobo and 227 kobo each to close at N201.00, N22.00, N50.35, N19.91 and N60.00 respectively.

On the other hand, Guinness Nigeria Plc topped the price losers' table, dropping by N12.10 to close at N130.00 per share followed by Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc with a loss of 450 kobo to close at N27.50 per share, while African Petroleum Plc shed 366 kobo to close at N46.93 per share.

On the week's activity chart, the banking sub-sector was the most active in volume terms as investors traded 1.2 billion shares worth N8.5 billion, followed by the insurance sub-sector with 359.5 million shares valued at N311. 1 million, while the food/beverages and tobacco sub-sector exchanged 95.3 million shares worth N952.8 million.

Further analysis of activities in the sub-sectors showed that volume in the banking sub-sector was largely driven by activities in the shares of First City Monument Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Diamond Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.

Trading in the shares of the four banks accounted for 573.95 million shares, representing 48.9 per cent of the sub-sector's turnover.

For the insurance sub-sector, the volume was boosted by AIICO Insurance Plc and Continental Re-Insurance Plc's combined volume of 123.7 million shares.

The Guardian Newspaper, Monday August 31, 2009.