NGX Climbs Amidst Significant Cross Deals in Banking Stocks
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) climbed by N6.9 billion on Wednesday amidst significant crossed deals recorded in banking segments.
Stockbrokers reported that buying interest in Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings among others supported the NGX All-share index, market capitalisation growth.
Trading activities in the local bourse was tight with both buy and sell side actors show of strength that resulted in 1 basis point surge in key performance indicators.
Though bear showed faces, the equities market still closed today’s trading session on a positive note as the NGX-ASI advanced by +0.01% to close at 166,267.60 index points.
Hence, year to date return increased slight to 6.85%. Smaller lender JAIZBANK gained +9.99% with MAYBAKER posting +9.95% gain along with, VITAFOAM (+3.10%), FIDELITYBANK (+1.48%) and STANBIC (+0.93%), among others.
These gained offset losses recorded in CADBURY (-3.64%), OANDO (-2.51%), ARADEL (-1.86%), UBA (-0.22%) and WEMABANK (-0.22%).
The market recorded a turnover of N24.93 billion, as 822.73 million shares exchanged hands in 45,410 deals, reflecting solid liquidity and continued investor confidence.
Volume drivers in the market include ZICHIS which came top with 69.22 million, followed by NSLTECH 54.80 million, ACCESSCORP 40.11 million, and ZENITHBANK 38.11 million while Value STANBIC N2.78 billion, ZENITHBANK N2.74 billion, and Nigerian Breweries N2.44 billion.
Sector performance was mixed as the Banking Index declined by 27bps, pressured by losses in ETI (-6.0%), UBA (-0.2%), WEMABANK (- 0.2%) and GTCO (-0.1%), despite gains in ACCESSCORP (+0.2%), STANBIC (+0.9%) and FIDELITYBK (+1.5%).
The Consumer Goods Index gained 3bps on the back of advances in HONYFLOUR (+4.1%), VITAFOAM (+3.1%), INTBREW (+0.7%), PZ (+0.4%) and DANGSUGAR (+0.3%), which offset declines in NB (-0.2%), CADBURY (-3.6%) and CHAMPION (-9.3%).
The Oil and Gas Index lost 94bps following sell-offs in OANDO (-2.5%) and ARADEL (-1.9%), while the Industrial Index added 9bps, supported by gains in CUTIX (+3.1%), TRIPPLEG (+0.8%) and WAPCO (+0.6%).
Market activity improved notably as value traded rose by 25.3% to $17.4 million, driven largely by block trades in STANBIC, ZENITHBANK, NB and GTCO.
The market recorded approximately 25.0 million STANBIC shares crossed at N108.0, about 20.0 million NB shares crossed at N80.0, and over 22.0 million ZENITHBANK shares crossed between N71.9 and N72 per share. Nigerian Top 5 Banks’ Valuation Increases to N12 Trillion
