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NSE LIVE! Zenith Bank under pressure as equities lose N208b

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Zenith Bank declares N56.5b dividend on N106b profit

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Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria’s second most capitalised banking stock and fifth most capitalised company, came under intense selling pressure last week as investors unexpectedly sought to exit the banking stock at lower prices.

Zenith Bank recorded the highest turnover and one of the highest percentage losses among its peers, unexpected performance for a stock billed to release its half-year earnings within the next few weeks.

Zenith Bank lost N38.62 billion in market capitalisation within the four-day trading session last week, representing 6.49 per cent decline, more than a triple of the average overall market decline of 2.15 per cent.

Zenith Bank recorded the highest turnover of 511.20 million shares worth N9.39 billion in 1,034 deals, about 43 per cent of the total turnover during the week. Zenith Bank’s share price dropped from its opening value of N18.95 to close the week at N17.72 per share.

Zenith Bank’s capital loss of N38.6 billion represented almost one-fifth of the total market loss of N208 billion recorded last week as Nigerian equities continued to struggle with macroeconomic headwinds and poor first half earnings.

Investors lost an average of 2.15 per cent of their portfolios during the four-day trading with all the indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closing on the negative. In spite of a last-day respite on Thursday that broke the 11-day successive recession since the start of the second half, the benchmark index at the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), indicated a week-on-week decline of 2.15 per cent to close the week at 31,047.99 points as against its opening index of 31,729.26 points.

Aggregate market value of all quoted companies dropped from its week’s opening value of N10.836 trillion to close the week at N10.628 trillion. There were only 13 gainers during the week as against 57 losers, underlining the widespread selling sentiments that had sustained 11-day consecutive decline at the stock market. In the previous week, there were 19 gainers against 50 losers. Most stocks still remained stagnant with 120 flat stocks this week against 124 unchanged stocks in the previous week.

Total turnover stood at 1.19 billion shares worth N20.26 billion in 14,349 deals this week as against a total of 1.26 billion shares valued at N15.77 billion traded in 17,016 deals in the previous week. Financial services sector remained the most active with a turnover of 928.85 million shares valued at N11.84 billion traded in 7,903 deals; representing 78.26 per cent and 58.44 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. Conglomerates sector followed with a turnover of 76.52 million shares worth N629.896 million in 979 deals. The oil and gas sector placed third with a turnover of 67.815 million shares worth N966.60 million in 1,652 deals.

The trio of Zenith International Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc were the most active stocks, jointly accounting for 647.735 million shares worth N9.888 billion in 2,477 deals, representing 54.58 per cent and 48.81 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Access Bank, the second most active stock, recorded a turnover of 72.48 million shares worth N356.37 million in 860 deals. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria ranked third on the activity chart with a turnover of 64.05 million shares worth N144.18 million in 583 deals.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities recover from 11-day recession with N51b gain

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