Stock market opens week bearish as Zenith lists added shares

The local stock market began the week on a mixed note as the All-Share Index edged down by 0.04 percent to close at 105,891.33 basis points.

On Monday, at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), the bearish trade was driven by profit-taking activities in Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Fidelity Bank as these banking stocks dipped by 2.3 percent, 2.7 percent, and 4.8 percent, respectively.

The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns, therefore, moderated to +1.3 percent and +2.9 per cent, respectively.

Despite this decline, market capitalization surged by 0.73 percent to N66.07 trillion, adding N477 billion in gains, driven by Zenith Bank’s listing of 9.67 billion ordinary shares.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 44 tickers gained relative to 25 losers.

Leading the gainers were Beta Glass, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Smart Products Nigeria, Honeywell Flour Mills and Eterna, recording gains of 10.00 percent, 10.00 percent, 10.00 per cent, 9.98 per cent, and 9.96 per cent, respectively.

On the flip side, International Energy Insurance, RT Briscoe, Julius Berger, Deap Capital Management & Trust and Daar Communication led the laggards.

Sectoral performance was largely positive, with the Insurance, Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas, Industrial Goods, and Commodity indices rising by 1.53 per cent, 0.10 percent, 0.09 percent, 0.08 percent, and 0.40 percent, respectively, while the Banking sector declined by 0.95 per cent.

Trading activity was robust, as the number of deals and total volume surged by 41.48 percent and 21.15 percent, respectively, to 567.29 million units exchanged across 17,843 deals.

However, total transaction value declined by 20.91 percent to N10.41 billion.

Secure Electronic Technology was the most traded stock by volume at 84.07 million units, while Fidelity Bank was the most traded stock by value at N1.36 billion.