On the first trading day following the Christmas break, the Nigerian Exchange Limited’s banking stocks continued their upward trajectory. The local exchange saw a N139 billion decline.
The market capitalization and the All-Share Index both decreased by 0.34 percent to 73,768.64 and N40.367 trillion, respectively. As a result, the ASI’s year-to-date gain fell to 43.94 percent.
On the other hand, the NGX’s banking index slightly rose on Wednesday, rising from 887.60 on Friday to 889.15.
A closer look at the performance of the banking equities revealed that Jaiz Bank Plc gained 8.75 percent, Fidelity Bank increased by 0.95 percent, FCMB Group increased by 4.79 percent, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc increased by 0.50 percent. Shares of Access Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank, and Unity Bank Plc all saw increases in value of 0.22, 0.26, and 2.50%, respectively.
Conversely, the value of shares in Stanbic IBTC Holdings decreased by 6.01 percent, while that of Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc decreased by 1.11 percent, FBN Holdings Plc decreased by 1.04 percent, and United Bank for Africa decreased by 0.39 percent. Wema Bank shuttered its doors, as did Eco bank Transnational Incorporated.
Market breadth which is the measure of investors’ sentiment, was positive resulting in 40 gainers and 21 losers.
During trading, sell-offs were observed in stocks such as UAC Nigeria, DEAP Cap, Caverton, Royal Exchange and Tantalizer, as their respective share prices dropped by 10 per cent, 7.25 per cent, 6.59 per cent, 6.25 per cent and 6.12 per cent.
Trading activity improved as the total deals and traded volume increased by 40.55 per cent and 2.27 per cent to 8,901 trades and 432.91 million units, whilst the traded value declined by 21.99 per cent to N12.94bn.
Sector-wise, investor sentiment was positive. The Insurance index led gainers with a 3.06 per cent increase, followed by the Oil/Gas and Banking indexes with a gain of 0.24 per cent and 0.17 per cent respectively.
However, the Consumer and Industrial Goods sectors experienced declines of 0.15 per cent and 1.10 per cent due to sell-offs.
