Equities trading on the Nigerian Exchange Limited again closed in the red for the second consecutive week, as the NGX All-Share Index and Market Capitalization depreciated by 1.19 percent and 0.71 percent to close the week at 106,538.60 and N66.717 trillion respectively. Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX AseM and NGX Commodity which appreciated by 0.04 percent and 0.19 percent respectively.
Following the depletion of the market capitalization from N67.193 trillion at the close of trading the previous week to N66.717 trillion penultimate Friday, investors suffered a loss of N467 billion in the first week of March 2025, even as the year-to-date return moderated but remain in the positive territory of 3.5 percent.
Further analysis revealed that selloffs in the shares of TRANSCORP, MTNN, and ACCESSCORP which shed 17.7 percent, 3.2 percent and 6.8 percent respectively dragged the week’s trading into the negative zone.
Numerically, a total turnover of 1.818 billion shares worth N47.226 billion in 64,222 deals was traded during the week under review by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.848 billion shares valued at N51.387 billion that exchanged hands the week previous in 63,090 deals.
Thirty (30) equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than twenty-seven (27) equities in the previous week. Fifty-eight (58) equities depreciated in price, lower than sixty (60) in the previous week, while sixty-two (62) equities remained unchanged, lower than sixty-three (63) recorded in the previous week.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.260 billion shares valued at N27.817 billion traded in 29,800 deals; thus contributing 69.31 percent and 58.90 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Consumer Goods industry followed with 123.336 million shares worth N3.069 billion in 7,793 deals.
Third place was the Services Industry, with a turnover of 118.931 million shares worth N832.602 million in 3,730 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Zenith Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 451.558 million shares worth N13.583 billion in 10,055 deals, contributing 24.84 percent and 28.76 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
A total of 56,372 units valued at N6.280 million were traded during the week in 99 deals compared with a total of 42,786 units valued at N16.133 million transacted last week in 81 deals
During the week, the NGX announced the listing of additional 18,200,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of Fidelity Bank Plc on its Daily Official List.
According to the notification issued by the NGX, “The additional shares listed on NGX arose from Fidelity Bank Plc’s hybrid offer of Rights Issue of 3,200,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N9.25 per share (The Rights Issue was 100% subscribed) and Offer for Subscription of 15,000,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N9.75 per share (the Public Offer was 237.92% subscribed).
“With this listing of the additional 18,200,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each the total issued and fully paid-up shares of Fidelity Bank Plc have now increased from 32,012,211,331 to 50,212,211,331 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each.”
During the week ended March 7, 2025, the Nigerian financial market offered a number of investment opportunities with the fixed-income market exercising dominance, with the issuance of Treasury bills, OMO bills, commercial papers, and FGN Savings bonds.
Analysts insist that the expected low interest rate sparked issuers’ interest in short-term instruments. This is evidenced in the fact that across the offers issued during the week, stop rates were lower than previous auctions but remained in double digits.
The stock market had only one offer, Wema Bank Plc, which announced a right issue of 14,286,785,417 ordinary shares for N10.45k per share based on two (2) new ordinary shares for every three (3) ordinary shares held as of March 5, 2025, in line with its recapitalisation plan.
At the primary market auctions mid-week, the Central Bank of Nigeria offered N650 billion worth of treasury bills across standard maturities to investors (91-day, 182-day, and 364-day papers).
The 364-day Treasury Bills saw significant oversubscription, with a total bid of N1.8 trillion from high-return-seeking investors, about four times the N500 billion offered by the DMO.
The total subscription was settled at N1.92 trillion due to excess liquidity reported in the money market before the auction. Investors showed preference for 364-day paper, which accounted for 94 percent of total subscriptions.
The results showed that the 91-day and 182-day T-bills both had under-subscription, with subscription levels at 89.39 percent and 75.01 percent, respectively. The general bid-to-cover came in at 2.96x, lower than the previous auction’s 3.44x.
The DMO allotted N830.44bn, exceeding the offer size by 28 percent. Stop rates for the 91-day paper remained unchanged at 17.00 percent, while the 182-day and 364-day bills declined by 25bps and 61bps, respectively, to close at 17.75 percent and 17.82 percent.
There were no updates in the week in the bond section, but analysts will continue to monitor the market for further bond market developments.
