The All-share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dipped by 6.16% in February 2021, a major drawback on the 5.32% gain recorded in the previous month to bring the year-to-date loss to 1.17%.

While they may not be Wolf of Wall Street, the top 10 stockbroking firms on the Nigeria Stock Exchange have been doing big businesses, and have traded stocks valued at N126.74 billion in the month of February 2021, accounting for 58.43% of the total value of shares traded.

This is contained in the Broker Performance Report for the month of February 2021.

A cursory look at the data shows that the February 2021 figure represents a 12.32% increase when compared to N112.84 billion recorded in January 2021 and 19.27% increase compared to N106.27 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.

Stockbrokers by value

• Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers is top on the list with trades worth N24.28 billion, representing 11.19% of the total value of traded stocks in The Exchange. It is worth noting that Stanbic IBTC also maintained the top spot in the 2020 ranking and also in the previous month.
• Absa Securities Nigeria Limited followed closely with trade-in stocks worth N23.64 billion, accounting for 10.9% of the total value. Absa Securities climbed by position from third recorded in January 2021.
• Cardinalstone Securities Limited stands third on the list with trades on stocks worth N18.98 billion representing 8.75% of the total trades. A step down from the second position held in the previous month.
• EFG Hermes Nigeria Limited followed with trades valued at N14.15 billion. This represents 6.52% of the total value of shares traded on the floor of The Exchange.
• Rencap Securities (NIG) Limited with a total value of N9.88 billion traded in stocks, accounted for 4.56% of the total recorded in the month of February.
• Others on the list include; Meristem Stockbroker (N9.25 billion), RMB Nigeria Stockbrokers (N8.89 billion), Apel Asset Limited (N6.26 billion), Imperial Asset Managers (N6.11 billion), and Cordros Securities Limited (N5.29 billion).

Notably, the top 5 firms in the month of January, did well to retain the top spot in the month under review.

Stockbrokers by volume of shares

• Cardinalstone Securities Limited topped the list in terms of volume of shares traded in February 2021, having recorded trades in 2.02 billion units of shares, hereby accounting for 11.33% of the total shares traded.
• Atlass Portfolios Limited followed closely with trades in 1.83 billion units of shares. This represents 10.24% of the total volume traded in the month under review.
• Meristem Stockbrokers Limited traded in 1.24 billion units of shares to stand in the third position. This accounts for 6.93% of the total volume of shares trades in the Nigerian Stock Exchange in February 2021.
• Morgan Capital Securities recorded total trades of 1.03 billion unit of shares, which represents 5.79% of the total trades.
• Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers traded in 859.62 million unit of shares in the month of February 2021, representing 4.77% of the total traded volume.
• Others on the list include; Greenwich Trust (740.2 million), EFG Hermes (471.05 million), Rencap Securities (364.02 million), Apel Asset (344.13 million), and CSL Stockbrokers (300.49 million).

What you should know

• The All-share index dipped by 6.16% to close at 39,799.89 index points as of 26th February 2021 from 42,412.66 points recorded in the previous month.
• Of all the sub-indices captured by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, only two of them recorded positive growth in the month of February. NSE Growth index (+9.33%) and NSE Oil & Gas Index (+4.36%).
• Meanwhile, the equities market capitalisation currently stands at N20.78 trillion as of 2nd March 2021, while the total bourse capitalisation stands at N38.15 trillion.

Nigerian stocks ended Tuesday’s trading session negative. Consequently, the NSE All-Share Index fell 0.59% to settle at 39,697.62 points, hence, the YTD performance retracted to 1.17%.

• A total of 222.5million shares, worth N5,390 billion were traded in 4,470 deals. Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 48.10 million shares valued at N1.23 billion.
• Across coverage sectors, the performance was mostly negative as all tracked indices closed negative for the day save for the NSE insurance which gained +0.21%.
• The NSE consumer goods, oil & gas, industrial, and banking indexes fell by 3.86%, 0.88%, 0.41%, and 0.12%, respectively.
• The Nigerian stock market breadth closed negative as 26 stocks posted 28 declines while 17 stocks appreciated.

Top gainers

1. ACADEMY up 9.76% to close at N0.45
2. PZ up 9.38% to close at N5.25
3. BETAGLAS up 8.00% to close at N54
4. ROYALEX up 8.00% to close at N0.27
5. REGALINS up 7.69% to close at N0.28

Top losers

1. MBENEFIT down 10.00% to close at N0.36
2. ARDOVA down 9.97% to close at N16.25
3. CHAMPION down 9.69% to close at N2.05
4. INITSPLC down 9.62% to close at N0.47
5. STERLNBANK down 8.75% to close at N1.46

Outlook

Nigerian bourse suffered significant losses as investors sold ARDOVA (-9.97%), STERLNBANK (-8.75%), WAPCO (-7.08%), and NESTLE (-6.90%).

• That being said, Nairametrics envisages cautious buying on the account that certain market indicators reveal investors are taking some of their gains across the market spectrum.