By Francis Ekeh

The Nigerian Exchange NGX LIMITED Lagos domestic equity market on Wednesday declined by 9bps as the NGX-ASI closed at 48,836.70 points.

As a result,  the Year-to-date (YTD) return of the market weakened to 14.3% from 14.4% the previous trading day.

Top gainers in Wednesday’s trading session were led by GEREGU (+10.0%), MULTIVERSE (+9.9%) and REDSTAREX (+9.4%) while CADBURY (-9.9%), NNFM (-9.3%) and PZ (-9.2%) posted as the biggest losers.

For the trading session, the total volume traded and value traded declined by 21.9% and 7.1% respectively to 135.5mn unit and ₦2.2bn.

STERLNBANK, TRANSCORP and OANDO led the volume chart with 9.9mn units, 7.1mn units and 6.9mn units respectively.

However, GEREGU, GTCO and SEPLAT led the value chart by ₦935.0mn, ₦341.0mn and ₦222.1mn respectively.

For the sectors under review, performance was more bearish as three indices printed red, save for the Insurance index which printed green.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Goods index closed on a marginal note.

The Banking index declined the highest by 350bps, followed by the Oil and Gas and Consumer Goods indices which declined by 60bps and 58bps respectively. 

Operators attribute their losses to investors’ selloffs in FIDELITYBK (-4.9%), OANDO (-2.1%), and INTBREW (-9.1%) respectively. 

At the same time, the Insurance index gained by 63bps with its gains attributed to buyers’ interests in AIICO (+5.8%).

Quick Insight
Geregu Power Plc was founded in 2006 and is one of the unbundled entities of Nigeria’s Power Holding Company (PHCN). It was listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) Wednesday with 2.5bn shares and quickly led major companies by being the highest gainer with a 10.0% gain after today’s trading session.

Femi Otedola, the Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors and a Billionaire, believes that listing the company will ensure long-term growth and that the benefits will be passed on to the Nigerian investing public.

The nature of the company is power generation, and has promised to bring solutions to Nigeria’s power sector, given the country’s fragile national grid, which has collapsed 21 times since the beginning of 2022.

Wiyh the listing, the company has made history by being the first power company to be listed on the NGX in its 62 years history