Banking stocks
NGX reacts bearishly to rate hike as banking equities lose N108.5 billion in one day
Banking stocks dragged the NGX to a second consecutive day of losses on May 23, as they cumulatively lost N108.54 billion of their market value.
Since the announcement of the 150-bps hike in the MPR to 26.25%, the NGX has been on a bearish run, declining by 0.45% from 98,285.33 points as of May 21, 2024.
On May 23, 2024, the NGX declined by 0.15% to close with an All-Share Index of 97,840.99 points, from yesterday’s 98,128.00 points.
Equities also lost N85 billion cumulatively as the market capitalization declined to N55.424 trillion from yesterday’s N55.509 trillion.
With the year-to-date gain of the NGX at 30.85%, the equities market is offering a negative real return, even as the country’s inflation as of April is at 33.69%
Market breadth was negative, with 28 stocks declining compared to 14 gainers. Among all listed banking stocks, only FCMB Group posted a gain. Fidelity Bank fell by 5.88%, while Jaiz Bank dropped 5.21%. GTCO Holdings and Access Holdings saw significant losses, with their market values decreasing by N29.4 billion and N17.75 billion, respectively.
Market Highlights
There was a 16.5% increase in trading volume to 316.453 million traded shares, as the number of deals increased by a marginal 6.3% to 7,851 from 7,383 yesterday.
The top gainers during the day were C&I Leasing which gained 9.90%, Caverton Offshore gained 7.69%, Chams Holdco also gained 7.14%, Consolidated Hallmark Holdings gained 6.15%, Veritas Capital Assurance gained 5.36%, and Africa Prudential gained 3.82%.
The top loser was Skyway Aviation Handling Co, which lost 9.80%, followed by NEM Insurance which lost 9.47%, Tantalizers lost 9.26% as investors took profit after a bullish run that lasted almost a week. Japaul Gold lost 7.37%, Mutual Benefit Assurance lost 7.02%, and Fidelity Bank lost 5.88%.
The top traded stock during the day in terms of volume was UBA which declined by 1.72%, with 50.316 million shares. GTCO Holdings lost 2.63% and recorded 38.544 million shares traded. Zenith Bank with 0.48% loss saw 28.943 million shares, Transcorp declined by 1.35% and 21.645 million shares, and Julius Berger Nigeria recorded 17.645 million shares.
In terms of value, Julius Berger led the trading activity with N1.465 billion, followed closely by GTCO at N1.428 billion. UBA recorded N984.76 million in trades, while Zenith Bank saw N878.76 million. Seplat Energy Plc, posting a 1.28% gain, rounded out the top five with N641.8 million.
SWOOTs Highlights
Trading sentiment for SWOOTs was mixed as GTCO Holdings and Zenith Bank posted 2.63% and 0.48% losses, while Seplat Energy posted a 1.28% gain. Other members of the category, Airtel Africa, BUA Foods, BUA Cement, Dangote Cement, Transcorp Power, Geregu Power, and MTN Nigeria posted no price changes.
