Access bank top gainers on Diamond bank acquisition

By Chioma Obinagwam

Less than 24 hours after the official takeover of Diamond bank Plc, Access Bank shares is already becoming investors’ toast- leading other share price gainers on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Extracts from the Daily Official list of the NSE dated December 17, 2018 showed that Diamond Bank, already acquired by Access Bank, closed 9 Kobo or 9.47 percent better at the close of Monday’s trading.

Access bank, now the parent bank, notched 70 Kobo or 9.40 percent to settle at N8.15.

In the same vein, Diamond Bank and Access Bank recorded the highest volumes of trade in the Banking subsector of the Nigerian bourse (NSE) as data mined from the Daily Official List showed that investors traded 70.98 million shares valued at N72.64 million in 254 deals whereas 13.62 million shares of Access bank were exchanged for N108.55 million in 129 trades- an outcome of the merger.

Going by the new development, Access Bank already on the Premium Board of NSE with a Market Capitalisation of N235.76 billion when added to Diamond Bank’s Market Capitalisation of N24.09 billion, emerges the most capitalised bank in the subsector.

Meanwhile, the five weeks downward (bearish) trend witnessed on the Nigerian bourse was extended in the week under review with key measurement indicators- the NSE All-Share index, a series of numbers on the NSE which shows the changing average value of the share prices of all listed companies took another dive along with the Market Capitalisation of listed equities on the bourse.

The official list showed that the All-Share index shaved 0.21 percent from the 30,672.79 basis points (bps) it recorded at the weekend to settle at 30,609.06 bps on Monday.

Market Capitalisation- total value of all listed companies’ shares followed the same pattern, shedding 0.21 percent or N23.28 billion to close at N11.18 trillion.
On the whole, a total of 214.96 million shares worth N1.73 billion were traded on the equities side of the Nigerian bourse.

Moreover, 17 stocks populated the gainers table whereas 20 shares retired to the laggards.

Confiance News gathered that  the forthcoming 2019 general elections have been blamed for the lull in the market, however, operators have advised that investors take position in fundamentally viable stocks in anticipation of a bull market (when stock prices are up).

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