Nigerian Exchange Swings as Total Announces Interim Dividend
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) swings upward strongly on Thursday as Total Plc. announced an interim dividend of N4 on each share following the company’s first half 2021 earnings release.
The extended rally saw investors’ fortune rising by N329.7 billion as market capitalisation closed at N20. 103 trillion. Investors are rebalancing their portfolios as companies began to release their earnings scorecard for the first half of 2021.
Also supporting the uptrend is declined inflation reading which analysts claimed has douse traders fear about quick yield uptrend in the fixed income space. The market had reacted negatively to treasury yield uptrend in the first half as retail investors’ adjusted portfolio downward.
TOTAL Plc.’s share price gained 10% as investors seem happy with the N4 per share interim dividend announced by the oil company following the release of its half year financial results.
Other tickers that drove positive sentiment on the exchange include DANGCEM, OANDO, WEMA, VITAFOAM, UCAP, ZENITH BANK, DANGSUGAR, GTCO, and STERLNBANK.
Consequentially market breadth closed positive with 22 gainers versus 13 laggards. However, trading activities on the exchange saw the volume of stocks traded declined by 56.11 per cent while the value of stocks traded appreciated by 43.75 per cent.
A total of 203.11 million units of shares valued at N1.72 billion, were traded in 3,969 deals.
STERLNBANK led the volume chart, accounting for 11.07 per cent of the total volume of trades, followed by UCAP (8.32%) FIDELITYBK (6.92%) WEMA (6.87%), and GTCO (6.55%) to complete the top five on the volume chart.
GTCO led the value chart accounting for 22.74 per cent of the total value of trade on the exchange.
TOTAL, CUTIX, OANDO topped the gainers’ chart, with their share prices advancing by 10.00 per cent, 9.77 per cent, and 9.73 per cent, respectively.
AIICO led the losers’ table with its share price depreciating by 8.70 per cent to close at N1.05 after opening the day at N1.15.
In an email sent to clients, Afrinvest said performance across sectors under its coverage was bullish as 4 indices gained, the Insurance index lost while the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices led the gainers, up 4.0% and 3.1% respectively, on the back of buying interest in DANGCEM (+7.8%), TOTAL (+10.0%), and OANDO (+9.7%).
Similarly, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices appreciated by 31bps and 7bps respectively, due to price appreciation in FBNH (+3.5%), ZENITH (+0.8%), DANGSUGAR (+0.3%), and UNILEVER (+0.8%).
On the flip side, the 1.9% decline in the Insurance index was largely driven by sell-offs in AIICO (-8.7%) and MANSARD (-2.3%).
“We expect the market to extend the positive performance to the last trading session of the week, driven by positive earnings release by companies”, Afrinvest said.
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Nigerian Exchange Swings as Total Announces Interim Dividend
