Nigerian stocks close flat as profit-taking in Geregu Power offsets banks’ gains

Nigerian stocks inched down 0.02 per cent on Thursday, the culmination of a session where buy and sell pressures were almost balanced and in which liquidity dropped by as much as 44 per cent compared to a day prior.

New entrant Geregu Power witnessed its first slip since its admission to the exchange last week, the force of that slide wiping out the positive difference the cumulative gains by the Big 5 lenders, sometimes called FUGAZ according to their initials, would have had on trade.

FBN Holdings, UBA and GTCO all came away from at least three straight losses to record moderate advance.

“We expect continued bearish sentiment to dominate the market, given the high-yield environment. However, investors will continue to hunt growth stocks,” analysts at United Capital said in a note to investors this week.

Market breadth, a gauge of investors’ sentiment towards trade, closed in the positive as 13 advancers were reported compared to 10 losers.

The all-share index diminished 7.5 points to 47,524.4, while market capitalisation dropped to N25.7 trillion.

Year to date, the index is up 11.3 per cent.
Honeywell Flour led gainers, appreciating by 9.8 per cent to close at N2.13. Neimeth grew by 9.5 per cent to end trade at N1.38. Fidson went up by 7.9 per cent to N9.17. Chams rose to N0.28, notching up 7.7 per cent in the process. Livestock Feeds traded up 6.8 per cent to N1.10.

SUACN declined by 9.76 per cent to close at N9.25. Geregu Power shed 110 per cent to end trade at N9.02. Lasaco fell to N0.84, losing 6.7 per cent in the process. Cornerstone Insurance slumped to N0.52, recording 5.5 per cent depreciation. Red Star Express closed at N3.48, going down by 3.3 per cent.

Altogether, 86.5 million shares estimated at N2.1 billion were traded in 3,264 deals.

GTCO was the most active stock with 19.2 million of its shares worth N342.2 million traded in 473 deals. Zenith Bank traded 8.5 million shares priced at N166.5 million in 257 transactions. Access Holdings had 8.5 million shares valued at N67.5 million exchange hands in 127 deals. UBA traded 4.5 million shares estimated at N31.2 million in 101 transactions. FBN Holdings traded 39.4 million shares valued at N36.5 million in 101 deals.