Flour Mills, Geregu, others cause stock market’s first gain this week

…GTCO grows Q3 profit by 181.9%

Nigeria’s equities market which had taken off this week on a negative note rerouted north on Tuesday as investors bought banking and consumer goods stocks, while insurance stocks were on offer.

The market rose by 0.51 percent while investors gained about N187billion at the close of trading session. Stocks like Flour Mills and Geregu Power helped the market to closed in green.

Flour Mills rose from day-open low of N28.20 to N31, adding N2.80 or 9.93percent, while Geregu Power also increased from N315 to N343.50, up by N28.50 or 9.05percent.

Also, Thomas Wyatt increased from N3.99 to N4.35, adding 36kobo or 9.02percent; while University Press went up from N2.14 to N2.35, adding 21kobo or 9.81percent.
“Going into the new week, we expect more mixed sessions, as investors tilt more towards fundamentally sound stocks, as we expect third-quarter (Q3) numbers to filter into the market,” Lagos-based analysts at Vetiva research said in their October 23 note to investors.

Read also: Equities market drops by 0.42% in week ended October 20

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) released its unaudited nine months financial result showing gross earnings of N850.33billion compared to N364.30billion in same period of 2022, up by 133.4percent.

GTCO’s pretax profit of N433.203billion in 9M’2023 as against N169.724billion in 9M’2022 represents an increase by 155.2percent, while profit after tax (PAT) rose to N367.417billion compared to N130.348billion in 9M’2022, up by 181.9percent.

At the close of trading on Tuesday, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation increased from 66,876.92 points and N36.742trillion respectively to 67,217.77 points and N36.929 trillion.

The market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) increased to 31.15 percent. In 6,272 deals, equity traders exchanged 319,904,303 shares valued at N6.330billion. Access Corporation, GTCO, Fidelity Bank, UBA and Sterling Bank were actively traded stocks on the NGX.

“Have Nigerian pension funds had a change of heart? For many years Nigerian pension fund eschewed equities, holding only a small percentage of their total assets under management (AUM) in stocks. Now it seems they are buying equities and increasing equity holdings as a percentage of total assets. After a long gap, equities are back in fashion with institutional investors,” according to Coronation Research analysts in their October 23 note.