-As GTCO Positions for Market Share Consolidation
February 02, (THEWILL) – Investors in Nigeria’s stock market hummed delightful tunes to mark an impressive performance by the domestic bourse which enriched them with almost N2 trillion in January 2025.
The development marked a spillover of the bullish sentiments that shaped the 2024 equities performance. The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) recorded a 38 percent growth for last year, representing the highest stock deals ever seen on the domestic bourse.
Market capitaliation closed at N64.7 trillion on Friday, January 31, against the N62.7 trillion opening figure on January 2, 2025, representing a positive N1.945 trillion return, or a 3.0 percent gain year-to-date.
In the same vein, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) moved 1.52 percent upwards to 104,496.12 points at the close of business for the month, against 102,926.40 points at the start of the year – constituting a 1.52 percent jump year-to-date.
This impressive performance tallied with analysts’ projection of continued buoyant equities transactions in Q1 2025, as fortune-hunters take position for the imminent earning season and dividends declaration by blue-chip companies.
Investors’ behaviour is another factor. Usually, they flood to the equities market when yields in the fixed income market become unattractive.
This reflected in the intra-month trading which saw continued bullish movement in January.
Comparatively, the equivalent period of 2024 (January) recorded higher performance in both shares’ turnover and total value. Check by THEWILL revealed that the NGX recorded a total turnover of 19.3 billion shares valued at N7.7 trillion in January 2024.
Conversely, the market recorded a total turnover of 13.8 billion shares in January 2025, valued at N229.4 billion. Both periods had 22 trading days.
However, market capitalisation was much higher in 2025 with N64.7 trillion compared with N55.3 trillion in January 2024, a growth of 17 percent, while the NGX ASI rose by 3.3 percent to 104,496.12 points in 2025 to exceed the 101,154.46 points recorded in the corresponding period of last year.
A finance analyst, Macauly Ekemena attributed the higher performance of 2025 to the impact of the government reforms and the movement of the interest rate regimes during the two periods when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised interest rates to 18.75 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively.
He noted that the removal of petrol subsidy and the devaluation of the naira changed the economic landscape of the country and affected businesses in different ways, hence investors are circumspect about their decisions which oscillate between the equity and fixed income markets. He predicts a continued bullish trend in the first quarter.
“Looking ahead, market performance is expected to be influenced by the ongoing earnings season, with sentiment likely remaining positive for companies delivering strong earnings and attractive dividends,” said analysts at Cordros Securities in a note on Friday.
GTCO intervention
Equities market kicked off the week with a bullish performance, adding N795 billion to investors’ portfolios, driven by the listing of 4.706 billion ordinary shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) at N44.50 per share.
Consequently, the stock market capitalisation surged from N63.645 trillion at the previous trading day to N64.440 trillion, while the All-Share Index rose by 0.79 per cent to close at 104,418.95, up from 103,598.46 recorded on Friday. This contributed to driving the Year-To-Date (YTD) return to 1.45 per cent.
Market value of GTCO Plc spiked to N2.128 trillion at the beginning of the week as the financial services group listed its public offer on the NGX.
The new shares listed increased its shares outstanding on the NGX, to 34.136 billion, and its market value surged, thus consolidating its market leadership status.
In a note, stockbrokers at Atlass Portfolios Limited told investors that the banking group had listed its public offer of 9,000,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at ₦44.50 per share on the exchange.
Market value of GTCO Plc spiked to N2.128 trillion at the beginning of the week as the financial services group listed its public offer on the Nigerian Exchange.
The new shares listed increased its shares outstanding on the Nigerian Exchange, NGX, to 34.136 billion, and its market value surged remarkably at the end of the month.
Analysis of the group’s performance showed that GTCO closed its last trading day (Friday, January 31, 2025) at N61.05 per share on the NGX), recording a 2 percent drop from its previous closing price of N62.30. GTCO began the year with a share price of 57.00 NGN and has since gained 7.11 percent on that price valuation.
GTCO is the eighth most traded stock on the NGX over the past three months (Nov 1, 2024 – Jan 31, 2025). The stock has traded a total volume of 1.01 billion shares—in 16,127 deals—valued at NGN N56.9 billion over the period, with an average of 16.1 million traded shares per session.
A volume high of 65.1 million was achieved on January 16th, and a low of 1.45 million on January 2nd, for the same period.
The group’s Q3 2024 ended September 30, 2024 report showed significant growth in its top line and bottom-line figures, year on year.
Gross Earnings of N1.798 trillion was recorded for the 9 months period, up by 111.47% from N850.33 billion recorded the previous year.
The group reported profit after tax of N1.085 trillion for the 9 months period, up by 195.31 percent from N367.417 billion reported the previous year.
Earnings per share of GTCO stood at N36.87.
Stakeholders and industry experts project a robust performance as the group prepares for the release of its FY 2024 results which would happen in the current first quarter.
GTCO has received several awards, including the 2024 Euromoney Award for Excellence for Best Bank for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria. It also won awards for financial crime prevention, fraud prevention, and risk management.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
