Today’s market activity showed a relatively balanced market breadth with 25 gainers and 24 losers, yet the Nigerian equities market closed on a negative note. The benchmark index dipped by 20 basis points to 99,805.95, slipping once again below the 100,000 mark. Major decliners were banking counters like GTCO (-4.21%), UBA (-2.74%), ETI (-3.86%), FBNH (-1.75%), Accesscorp (-1.28%) and Zenithbank (-0.40%). Conversely, Dangsugar (+1.74%) and Wapco (+0.97%) were the silverlinings.
Geregu traded about N631m worth of shares in fragmented trades, although price did not change. Other index heavyweights such as Buafoods, Buacem and Dangem remained quiet and unchanged throughout the session.
In the recapitalization front, GTCO’s public offer, aiming to raise N400.5bn, opened yesterday with 9 billion shares priced at N44.50 each. Accesscorp’s rights issue and Fidelity’s public offer and rights issue continue to progress.
Market turnover soared to N54.0 billion ($34.8 million), primarily fueled by significant off-market trades of approximately 118 million units of Transpower at N413. We anticipate the market to maintain a steady course in the next session.