Zenith post impressive result as investors lost N105bn at NSE

Zenith Bank PLC released its full year 2017 financial result at the Stock Exchange a largely impressive financial result. The bank’s gross earnings and Profit PAT expanded 46.7 per cent and 37.2 per cent Y-o-Y to N745.2 billion and N177.9 billion respectively while a dividend of N2.70 (dividend yield of 8.7%) was declared for the period.

Investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost share value of N105 billion as the local bourse opened the week on a negative note and the All Share Index shed 26bps to close at 43,056.51 points while year to date YTD, return moderated to 12.6 per cent. As a result market capitalisation declined to N15.4 trillion as investors lost N105.0 billion in value.

The bearish performance observed in the market was largely due to losses in UBA (-4.7%), UBN (-4.2%) and UNILEVER (-2.3%). Similarly, activity level weakened as volume and value traded fell 71.9 per cent and 71.7 per cent to 431.2 million units and N5.6 billion respectively. The top trades by volume were ZENITH (78.9m), JAPAUL OIL (64.8m), and REGALINS (41.6m), while the top traded by value were ZENITH (N2.5bn), GUARANTY (N0.8bn) and NESTLE (N0.5bn).

Sector Performance was largely mixed as 2 indices closed in the red, 2 trended northwards while 1 closed flat. The Insurance index was the biggest gainer, up 0.8 per cent on account of price appreciation in MANSARD (+2.7%) and NEM (+3.3%). Similarly, the Oil & Gas index inched 0.3 per cent higher primarily due to buy interest in TOTAL (+1.7%).

On the other hand, sell pressure in UBA (-4.7%) and UBN (-4.2%) dragged the Banking index 0.9 per cent southwards. Relatedly, The Consumer Goods index lost 9bps today on the back of profit taking in UNILEVER (-2.3%) and NASCON (-2.8%) while the Industrial Goods index closed the day flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by the market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.5x from 1.1x recorded the previous Friday as 18 stocks advanced relative to 33 stocks that declined. The top performers were UNIC (+9.5%), MULTIVERSE (+7.7%) and HMARKINS (+7.7%) while REGALINS (-5.7%), DIAMOND (-4.9%) and UPL (-4.8%) were the worst performers. Although today’s performance was bearish, we anticipate a positive reaction in the market to new earnings which are expected to trickle in this week