Stock market closes flat, amid sell-offs in Zenith Bank, GTCO, others

By Philemon Adedeji

Trading activities on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed flat yesterday caused by Investor interests in Dangote Cement were offset by selloffs in Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).

The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) closed at 55,603.94 absolute points from 55,605.57 absolute points it closed for previous trading day.

Absolutely, the year-to-date (YTD) slipped to 8.49 per cent, while the market capitalisation lost  N1 billion to close at N30.290 trillion.

The breakdown of market performance indicated that trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 0.31 per cent.

Analyst at Coronation Research said, “As we wrote in our year-ahead outlook (Better times in 2023, 11 January), Nigerian general elections tend to be inflection points for Nigeria’s financial markets. What does the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last week’s presidential elections imply? The APC’s election manifesto calls for growth, and growth is to be provided by a high level of public expenditure.”

Transnational Corporation led the volume chart with 14.42 million units traded while Zenith Bank  led the value chart in deals worth N344.88 million.

The market sentiments as measured by Market breadth closed negative as Caverton Offshore topped 8 others on the leaders table, while while UACN led 14 others on the laggards table.

The trade volume increased to 159,460,465 million share valued at N2.475 billion were exchanged in 4,187 deals.

However, at the close of trade yesterday, Caverton Offshore led the gainers chart with 9.62 per cent to close at N1.14 per share, closely followed by UACN which gained 7.60 per cent to close at N9.20 per share, while Wapic Insurance rose significantly by 5.00 per cent to close at N0.42 per cent.

AXA Mansard Insurance which recorded as the last fourth gainer grew by 4.50 per cent to close at N2.09 per share, as Chams Plc went up by 3.85 per cent increased to close at N0.27 per share.

On the losers chart, MRS Oil which emerged as the highest price loser went down by 10.00 per cent to close at N31.05 per cent, NCR which followed by lost 9.88 per cent to close at N2.92 per share, while Multiverse and Mining Evaporation declined by 9.85 per cent to close at N3.59 per share.

Cutix and Veritas Kapital Insurance dipped by 9.09 per cent each to close at N2.00 and N0.20 per share respectively.

Transaction in the shares of Transnational Corporation topped the activities chart with 14.420 million shares valued at 18.466 per share, followed by Zenith Bank which transacted 13.261 million shares worth N344.877 million, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company traded 11.871 million shares valued at N311.013 million.

United Bank of Africa (UBA) accounted 11.141 million shares worth N95.468 million.

Fidelity Bank sold 10.224 million shares value at N52.519 million.