SAT. 01 APRIL 2023-theGBJournal | In the last trading session of the week, the local bourse extended losses as the All-Share Index declined by 0.33% to close at 54,232.34 points.
All other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Main Board, NGX 30, NGX Oil & Gas, NGX LOTUS II, NGX Industrial Goods and NGX Growth which depreciated by 0.95%, 1.24%, 2.02% 0.70%, 3.26% and 2.53% respectively while the NGX ASeM and NGX Sovereign Bond indices closed flat
Profit in telco heavyweight, AIRTELAFRI (+4.15%) was offset by selloffs in Tier-1 banking names, ZENITHBANK (-0.19%), GTCO (-0.20%) and FBNH (-0.45%). Having lost in three out of the five trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 1.20% lower w/w.
Over the course of the week, AIRTELAFRI (-4.50% w/w), DANGCEM (-6.25% w/w) and SEPLAT (-4.17% w/w) were the major drags on the broader index offsetting gains in MTNN (+1.69% w/w), BUAFOODS (+3.03% w/w) and ZENITHBANK (3.61% w./w) . Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 5.82%, while the market capitalization shed N359.65bn w/w to close at N29.54trn.
For the first quarter in 2023, the top three performing stocks were GEREGU (+116.80%), BUAFOODS (+56.9%) and OANDO (+45.40%) while the top laggards were NB (-9.8%), AIRTELAFRI (-9.5%) and ARDOVA (-7.3%).
Performances across the NGX sub-indices were positive as the NGX Consumer Goods (+19.15%) sub-index led the gainers, followed by NGX Oil/Gas (+10.45%), NGX Banking (+8.50%), NGX Pension (+6.35%), NGX-30 (+6.24%), NGX Industrial Goods (+6.05%) and NGX Insurance (+1.81%) sub-indices.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 12.93%. A total of 557.93m shares valued at N3.68bn were exchanged in 3,943 deals. TRANSCORP (-7.33%) led the volume chart with 287.68m units traded, while NGXGROUP (-1.79%) led the value chart in deals worth N685.07m.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.09-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. UACN (+9.14%) topped eleven (11) others on the leader’s log, while TRANSCORP (-7.33%) led ten (10) others on the laggard’s table.
A total turnover of 2.071 billion shares worth N17.562 billion in 17,917 deals was traded during the week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.689 billion shares valued at N11.066 billion that exchanged hands last week in 14,019 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Living Trust Mortgage Bank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, (measured by volume) accounted for 1.429 billion shares worth N3.461 billion in 1,620 deals, contributing 69.00% and 19.71% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Meanwhile, global equities are poised to end the week higher as swift policy response from policymakers providing liquidity support helped curtail contagion from the banking turmoil. Investors’ sentiments were further strengthened by a softer-than-expected Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) reading later in the week.
To this point, US equities (DJIA: +1.9%; S&P 500: +2.0%) edged higher as investors gained momentum after turmoil following interventions to curtail issues within the banking sector in the preceding weeks. In the same vein, sentiments across European equities (STOXX Europe: +3.0%; FTSE 100: +3.4%) were bullish, as easing worries about the global banking crisis revived investors’ appetite for riskier assets.
In Asia, Japanese equities (Nikkei 225: +2.4%) tracked the broadly positive cues from global markets, as technology and financial stocks led the gains. Meanwhile, Chinese equities (SSE: +0.2%) were marginally positive as upbeat sentiments around Alibaba’s proposed business reorganization fueled buying interest in tech stocks.
Emerging (MSCI EM: +1.4%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: +1.8%) market indices mirrored the positive theme across major markets, closing positively on gains in China (+0.2%) and Vietnam (+1.9 %), respectively.
Dividend Information
| Company | Dividend (Bonus) | Closure Date | Payment Date |
| BUACEMENT | N2.80 (final) | 11-Aug-23 | 24-Aug-23 |
| STANBIC | N2.00 (final) | 12-Apr-23 | 26-May-23 |
| NESTLE | N36.50 (final) | 28-Apr-23 | 18-May-23 |
| SEPLAT | $0.075 (final) | 19-Apr-23 | 10-May-23 |
| ZENITHBANK | N3.20 (final) | 17-Apr-23 | 2-May-23 |
| WAPCO | N2.00 (final) | 11-Apr-23 | 28-Apr-23 |
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