Equities market begins week on a positive note, gains gain N41.60bn

The equities market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Monday began trading week on a positive note, as market capitalization gained N41.60billion to close at N30.29trillion.

Opening the week, the local bourse rebounded by 0.14 per cent to settle at 55,605.57 points. Investor interest in telco heavyweight, MTNN (+1.22%), alongside WAPCO (+0.19%) and UBA (1.16%) kept the market in the positive territory, offsetting losses in ZENITHBANK (-1.13%), GTCO (-0.75%) and NB (-0.97%).

Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 8.50 per cent.

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 6.72 per cent.

A total of 123.55m shares valued at N2.48billion were exchanged in 4,076 deals. TRANSCORP (-0.78%) led the volume chart with 11.80m units traded while GEREGU (+0.00%) led the value chart in deals worth N604.27million.

Market breadth closed negative at a 1.20-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. FTNCOCOA (-6.67%) topped seventeen (17) others on the laggard’s log while JBERGER (+10.00%) led fourteen (14) others on the leader’s table.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group) Plc posted N7.5billion in gross earnings for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The Group audited results revealed that gross earnings grew by 10.3 per cent from N6.8 billion reported in full year 2021. This double-digit growth in the top line was because of the persistent growth in revenue and increase of other income.

Revenue increased by 6.8 per cent to N6.2 billion from N5.8 billion. Transaction fees which accounted for 51.2 per cent of revenue also increased by 9.0 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to N3.2 billion from N2.9 billion in 2021. Growth in treasury investment income moved to N2billion in full year 2022 relative to N1.3 billion in 2021 was driven largely by relatively higher yields on the Group’s treasury investment portfolio owing to improved yields on treasury bills, bonds and fixed deposit instruments.

A 9.0 per cent growth in transaction fees to N3.2 billion in 2022 from N2.9 billion recorded in 2021 was driven by improved trading activities in Nigerian Exchange Limited, while listing fees grew by 1.3 per cent to N774.7 million in 2022 from N754.9 million in 2021 driven primarily by a relatively higher listing of corporates on the Exchange in the year ended 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

Growth recorded by the Group in other income was driven by a 47.2 per cent increase in market data income to N581.4 million from N395.0 million, while total expenses grew by 35.5 per cent to N8.8 billion from N6.5 billion in 2021.