Nigeria Stock Exchange lifts suspension on LASACO Assurance Plc, as investors lost N122.4bn

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has lifted the full suspension placed on trading in the LASACO Assurance’s shares following the completion of the share capital reconstruction. Consequent to the completion of the reconstruction exercise, LASACO’s entire issued share capital of 7,334,343,421 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N0.42 per share prior to the share capital reconstruction was delisted from The Nigerian Stock Exchange’s Daily Official List, while the 1,833,585,855 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N1.68 per share arising from the share capital reconstruction were listed on The Exchange’s Daily Official List on the same day. With the completion of the Company’s share capital reconstruction, the total issued and fully paid-up shares of LASACO Assurance Plc has now reduced from 7,334,343,421 to 1,833,585,855 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each. 

Trading at the equities market closed in the red following sell-offs in  NESTLE, WAPCO and FLOURMILL. As a result, the benchmark index fell 59bps to 39,697.62 points, YTD return worsened to -1.4% and market capitalisation declined by ₦122.4bn to ₦20.8tn. Trading activity varied as volume declined by 59.1% to 222.6m units and value rose 185.5% to ₦5.4bn. The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (48.1m units), UCAP (20.2m units) and MBENEFIT (19.4m units) while NESTLE (₦2.7bn), ZENITH (₦1.2bn) and GUARANTY (₦240.7m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was poor as 4 of the 6 indices under our coverage closed southward. The Insurance index emerged the lone gainer, up 0.2% due to price appreciation in NEM (+6.0%) and PRESTIGE (+7.0%). On the flip side, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices lost 3.9% and 0.9% respectively due to declines in NESTLE (-6.9%), FLOURMILL (-6.4%), ARDOVA (-10.0%) and OANDO (-4.7%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods and Banking indices closed lower by 0.4% and 0.1% respectively following sell pressures in WAPCO (-7.1%), UBA (-1.8%) and ZENITH (-0.6%). Lastly, the AFR-ICT index closed flat. 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) increased to 0.7x from the 0.4x recorded previously as 17 stocks advanced against 24 decliners. ACADEMY (+9.8%), PZ (+9.4%) and ROYALEX (+8.0%) were the top gainers while MBENEFIT (-10.0%), ARDOVA (-10.0%) and CHAMPION (-9.7%) were the top losers. As investor sentiment remains subpar, we are not optimistic about significant gains in the market this week. Last week a total turnover of 1.930 billion shares worth N20.656 billion in 24,687 deals were traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.541 billion shares valued at N18.235 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 22,752 deals. 

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.450 billion shares valued at N15.070 billion traded in 14,236 deals; thus contributing 75.11% and 72.96% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 154.906 million shares worth N179.673 million in 798 deals. The third place was Consumer Goods Industry, with a turnover of 111.782 million shares worth N2.270 billion in 3,865 deals. Trading in the top three equities namely Wema Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and First Bank Holding Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 782.167 million shares worth N8.914 billion in 4,624 deals, contributing 40.52% and 43.15% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalisation depreciated by 0.96% to close the week at 39,799.89 and N20.823 trillion respectively. Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NSE Banking, NSE AFR Bank Value, NSE MERI Growth and NSE Oil/Gas Indices which rose by 0.69%, 1.34%, 0.66% and 0.97% while the NSE ASeM and NSE Growth Indices closed flat. (See summary of index movements in the table below): 

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 2nd March 2021