The Nigerian stock market began April on a bearish note, reversing the gain of the past week and continuing the negative momentum from March.
In the three-day trading week, the NGX All-Share Index dipped by 0.14 per cent week-on-week to close at 105,511.89 points.
The market capitalisation slipped by 0.17 per cent to N66.15 tn, handing a loss of about N109.98 bn to investors. The local bourse faced this decline despite the release of impressive 2024 audited financials and generous dividend declarations, particularly from the banking sector.
The ASI was also impacted by the delisting of the three companies: Capital Oil Plc, Goldlink Insurance Plc, and Medview Airlines Plc for failing to meet listing requirements.
The NGX Regulation also put on notice EkoCorp Plc, saying, “NGX RegCo engaged the entity reflected in Table A (EkoCorp Plc) above with a view to returning the company to its compliance level. When these efforts did not yield results, NGX RegCo sent three months and one month delisting notices to the company on September 5, 2023, and January 2, 2024, respectively. Following the said notifications, Ekocorp commenced engagement with NGX RegCo on March 13, 2024, with an indication to cure its compliance deficiencies. Thus, NGX RegCo stayed execution on the delisting process. However, to date, the company has been unable to resolve the identified deficiencies and has ceased to engage NGX RegCo despite several communications sent to the company. In view of the foregoing, NGX RegCo has proceeded with publishing the name of Ekocorp in the national dailies. This publication gives the company four months to cure its deficiencies, failing which NGX RegCo will proceed with the final delisting of the company.
During the week under review, the total turnover stood at 1.183 bn shares worth N28.87 bn exchanged in 42,397 deals, lower than 7.521 billion shares valued at N398.95 bn that exchanged hands the previous week in 61,312 deals.
By volume, the financial services led the activity chart with 906.590 million shares valued at N18.93bn traded in 22,876 deals, thus contributing 76.60 per cent and 65.56 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively. The consumer goods industry followed with 71.059 million shares worth N2.22bn in 3,394 deals. Third place
was the services industry, with a turnover of 47.305 million shares worth N396.89m in 2,132 deals.
Top picks for investors were Fidelity Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, and Universal Insurance Plc, which combined accounted for 264.627 million shares worth N5.932bn, which exchanged hands in 5,714 deals, contributing 22.36 per cent and 20.55 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
In the past week, 23 equities appreciated, while 51 equities depreciated and 73 equities remained unchanged, resulting in a weak market breadth which underscores the prevailing bearish sentiment.
On the sectoral front, performance was largely negative, except for the NGX Banking Index, which rose week-on-week, buoyed by positive sentiment in Guarantee Trust Holding Company, Fidelity Bank, AccessCorp and Wema Bank.
The NGX Insurance Index led sectoral losses, followed by Oil & Gas, Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods, driven by sell-offs in SUNU Assurance, Universal Insurance, Oando, Tantaliser, PZ Cussons, Lafarge Africa and Cutix. The NGX Commodity Index remained flat for the week.
Gainers for the week included VFD Group (+20.8 per cent), Union Dicon (+19.60 per cent), Africa Prudential (+15.7 per cent), NGX Group (+11.9 per cent), and UPDC REIT (+10.9 per cent).
On the losers’ chart were UAC Nigeria N (-18.3 per cent), SUNU Assurance (-13.4 per cent), Universal Insurance (-13.3 per cent), Oando (-13.1 per cent), and Consolidated Hallmark Holdings Plc (-12.8 per cent), ranked among the worst performers.