Nigeria’s Equity Market Sheds N464bn Amid Profit-Taking

The nation’s equity market Monday opened the week bearish, shedding N464 billion. The downward trend followed profit-taking in the shares of GTCO, United Bank for Africa, Zenith, AccessCorp, Nascon, NGX group and others. Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 1.24 per cent to N36.831 trillion from N37.295 trillion reported the previous day. The NGX also depreciated by 847.16 basis points to 67296.18 points from 68143.34 points traded on Friday. An analysis of the investment showed that Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Nigeria Plc led gainers table, appreciating by 9.96 per cent to N13.25 per unit, Oando Plc followed with a gain of 9.74 per cent to close at N8.45 per share, CWG increased by 9.0 per cent to close at N6.30 per share, NPF Micro Finance Bank added 8.20 per cent to close at N1.98 per share while RTBriscoe up by 7.32 per cent to close at N0.44 per unit. On the contrary, ETranzact, Nascon and NSL Tech topped losers’ chart, dropping by 10 per cent each to close at N9.00, N52.20 and N0.27 per share respectively. Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with a drop of 9.98 per cent to close at N57.75 per unit while Learn Africa declined by 9.86 per cent to close at N3.29 per unit. Investors traded 520.133 million shares valued at N8.334 billion in 9914 deals against 483.489 million shares worth N8.340 billion in 6660 deals. Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa led market activities with 75.932 million shares valued at N1.049 billion, AccessCorp followed with 57.668 million shares valued at N957.323 million, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria traded 53.724 million shares cost N331.528 million, Zenith Bank traded 43.128 million shares worth N1.523 billion while FBNHoldings exchanged 26.573 million shares valued at N480.793 million. Zenith Bank declares N15.70bn as interim dividend to shareholders Zenith Bank Plc has declared an interim dividend of N15.70 billion (representing N0.50 per share) to be paid to shareholders for the half year ended June 2023. This was disclosed in the company’s corporate action announcement to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Monday. The Board of Directors of the company proposed the payment of an interim dividend in the sum of N0.50kobo per ordinary share on the issued capital of 31,396,493,786 Ordinary Shares. At its 32nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May, shareholders of the bank unanimously approved the proposed final dividend payment of NGN2.90 per share. This brings the total dividend for the 2022 financial year to NGN3.20 per share, with a total value of NGN100.47 billion. The board of Zenith Bank Plc had earlier announced a delay in the release of its 2023 Half-Year (HY) financial results due to post-audit issues. According to the statement signed by the Company Secretary, Michael Osilama Otu, the delay in the publication of the Audited Interim Financial Statements for the Half Year ended June 30, 2023, is due to some outstanding post-audit issues. The bank said the results will be delivered on or before September 14, 2023. The statement reads: “Zenith Bank Plc (the Bank) wishes to notify its shareholders, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (the Exchange), and the investing public of a slight delay in the release of the Audited half-year financial reports by the Bank for the period ended June 2023. “The delay is to enable the bank to attend to some outstanding post-audit issues in the course of approval of the financial statements. “The Bank is, however, optimistic that the Audited half-year financial reports will be submitted to the Exchange on or before September 14, 2023, and regrets any inconveniences this delay might cause its esteemed stakeholders.