For the second trading day within the week, the lead performance pointer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange dipped, as it gave up 17Bpts of its previous close and ended the day’s trade at 25,514.17 point. It was a mixed performance among the observed market indices as shown in the index movement table. Week to Date, activities index is down by 54Bpts while Month to Date returns remained positive 73Bpts.
Value loss by the market capitalization of the listed equities during today’s trading activities was N15.389 billion same as 17Bpts below the opening value. Meanwhile, trading activities for the day produced 15 advancers and 22 lagers. NSEASI Year to Date loss is -5.06% while the Market Capitalization Year to Date loss stood at –N491.431 billion same as 4.54% below the year’s opening value.
The management of Stanbic IBTC today unveiled its score card for the year ended 31st December, 2016 where it proposed a 5k cash dividend. The closure date for the said dividend is 4th April, 2017 while the Annual General Meeting date and venue will be announced later.
The result revealed an improvement over comparable year of 2015. For example, Gross Earnings expanded from N140.027 billion in 2015 to N156.425 billion. Profit before tax stood at N37.209 billion compare to the N23.651 billion reported in 2015. Similarly, profit for the year is N28.520 billion as against N18.891 in 2015.
We are of the opinion that the market will respond positively to the improving economic state, although this is not without interval pull backs, mostly due to profit taking activities. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended that traders should play cautiously around the market arena.
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