The Nigerian Exchange, NGX, popped higher yesterday after losses due to selloffs in heavyweight stocks in the local bourse. With the marginal gain, the domestic equities market index was little changed as losses in financials and consumer goods stocks were offset by gains in oil and gas shares.
The local bourse closed higher by 0.2% at 51,138.92 points (+2 bps), after flitting between positive and negative territory. Consequently, the year-to-date loss of the exchange mellowed to 0.22%, despite the market breadth closing flat with 21 gainers and losers a piece.
Data showed that stock market return steadied at -0.2% while market capitalisation increased by ₦2.5 billion to ₦27.8 trillion – last week, NGX valuation declined by more than N600 billion.
TRANSCORP further gained 9.73% to lead the best-performing stocks, following reports of a 5.5% share acquisition by billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola. Stockbrokers at Cowry Asset Management stated that equities investors trading highs and lows showed buying interest in dividend-paying companies such as GTCO (+0.60%), which proposed N2.80 per share.
ETERNA (+4.55%), FBNH (+1.46%), NB (+1.10%), and DANGSUGAR (+0.59%) also closed positive. Meanwhile, LINKASSURE lost 8.33%, UCAP declined by 2.13%, ETI slipped 0.94%, and ZENITHBANK gave up 0.91% of its opening market price.
Sectorial performance was negative as three of the five indices tracked closed southward; the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, and NGX Industrial indices fell by 0.50%, 1.43%, and 0.01%, respectively.
In contrast, the NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Oil/Gas indexes dwindled by 0.04% and 0.12%, respectively. Trading activity ballooned as Transcorp accounted for 62% of today’s value.
Specifically, total deals, volume, and value jumped by 6.77%, 703.18%, and 220.17%, respectively, to 4,669 trades, 1.82 billion units, and N5.02 billion. In terms of volume, TRANSCORP also emerged as the most actively traded stock, with 1.60 billion shares worth N3.09 billion changing hands in 839 deals.
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, improved to 0.00x from -0.01x in the prior session as 21 stocks advanced, 21 declined and 66 closed flat, according to data from the exchange. Afrinvest expects a muted performance on the local bourse as investors trade cautiously in the absence of positive triggers.
Yesterday, Seplat notified the investing public of the currency exchange rates that will be applicable in determining its final dividend for 2022 and the special dividend to any shareholder that qualifies for and has elected to receive the dividend payment in Naira or Sterling (GBP). The exchange rates announced are $1.00 = 462.25 NGN and $1.00 = 0.8069 GBP.
