… As Official says NGX Group shareholders endorse resolutions at 60th AGM***
The nation’s bourse extended losing streak to four consecutive trading sessions on Thursday with the All-Share Index contracting further by 0.01 per cent on sustained sell-offs of banking stocks.
The performance was buoyed by investors’ profit-taking sentiments in all the major sectors except oil & gas stocks.
Specifically, the All-Share Index shed 3.19 points or 0.01 per cent to close at 39,201.33 in contrast with 39,204.52 achieved on Wednesday.
Consequently, month-to-date and year-to-date losses stood at 0.1 per cent and 2.7 per cent, respectively.
Similarly, the market capitalisation inched lower by N2 billion or 0.01 per cent to close at N20.424 trillion from N20.426 trillion posted on Wednesday.
The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Honeywell Flour Mill, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Livestock Feeds and United Capital.
The market breadth closed negative with 21 losers in contrast with nine gainers.
Cornerstone Insurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 7.69 per cent to close at 48k per share.
AIICO Insurance followed with 6.86 per cent to close at 95k, while Learn Africa shed 5.56 per cent to close at N1.36 per share.
Also read: NGX market capitalisation extends loss by N24bn
Livestock Feeds lost 5.45 per cent to close at N2.08, while Honeywell Flour Mills declined by 5.13 per cent to close at N3.88 per share.
On the other hand, Chams drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 4.76 per cent to close at 22k per share.
United Bank for Africa followed with a gain of 4.67 per cent to close at N7.85, while Cutix appreciated by 4.60 per cent to close at N5 per share.
Oando went up by 3.08 per cent to close at N4.68, while Nigerian Breweries appreciated by 1.25 per cent to close at N48.65 per share.
Also, the total volume traded fell by 1.0 per cent to 350.53 million shares worth N3.35 billion traded in 3,523 deals.
This was against a turnover of 354.06 million shares valued at N3.20 billion shares transacted in 4,095 deals on Wednesday.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 97.73 million shares worth N729.64 million.
Wema Bank followed with 74.856 million shares valued at N58.48 million, while Access Bank traded 47.75 million shares valued at N451.17 million.
Livestock Feeds sold 12.85 million shares worth N26.67 million, while Nigerian Breweries transacted 10.003 million shares valued at N486.82 million.
In the meantime, Shareholders of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group,) formerly the NSE, have voted in support of the resolutions presented by the Group at its 60th Annual General Meeting (AGM).
The shareholders voted in favour of the resolutions at the first AGM of the NGX Group as a demutualised, shareholder-owned, for-profit entity, in Abuja on Thursday.
L-R: Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group) Plc, Mr Oscar Onyema; Group Chairman, NGX Group, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbanjo; and Group Company Secretary and Head, Compliance, NGX Group, Mrs Mojisola Adeola at the 60th Annual General Meeting of NGX Group held on Thursday, Sept. 9 in Abuja.
The Group’s Chairman, NGX Group, Otunba Abimbola Ogunbanjo said that the AGM was historic since it was the first outside Lagos State in the history of the NGX.
“This meeting is also historic in that it marks the first time in the history of the NGX Group that its AGM will hold outside the hallowed confines of the Exchange House in Lagos.
”And we have chosen the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in recognition of the integral role the Federal Government of Nigeria played in actualising the demutualisation of the NSE and its support in establishing the NGX Group.
“I am both thankful for the invaluable support of our stakeholders and proud of the resilience the NGX Group continues to demonstrate after over six decades, despite the global pandemic and other economic shocks.
“It is indeed noteworthy that we have already begun to actualise the benefits of demutualisation, including the alignment of stakeholders’ interests in the value created by the new Group under a revised Corporate Governance framework,” he said.
On the outcomes of the AGM, Ogunbanjo said: “We received approval of new equity-based incentive schemes for employees which are in line with the authority granted to Directors by the members of the NSE at an Extraordinary General Meeting in March 2020, to adhere to global best practices allowing us to attract and retain the best talent.
”Today, I am more confident than ever that the Group is well-positioned to deliver value to shareholders as we move into a new growth phase,” he said.
The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NGX Group, Mr Oscar Onyema said: “We thank our shareholders for their support of the resolutions proposed at today’s meeting.
“Our 2020 results reflect the challenging macroeconomic and market conditions, as well as operational resilience of the Group with income and resulting surplus after tax valued at N6.02 billion and N1.84 billion, respectively.
“In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we maintained tight cost controls, which reduced expenses by 13 per cent, despite investments in technology that allowed us to operate remotely with zero downtime.
“The Group ended Year 2020 in a sound financial position with net assets growth of over 10 per cent to N31.28 billion,” he said.
Onyema added: “Looking ahead, the NGX Group and its wholly owned subsidiaries: Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX Regulation, and NGX Real Estate, will continue to advance the realisation of our vision to be Africa’s leading integrated capital market infrastructure provider.
“As the Group progresses its plans to list on the Nigerian Exchange, we look forward to welcoming a broader group of investors to share in our journey,” he said.
In addition to the re-election of the non-Executive Directors, who are retiring by rotation and the election of the members of the Audit Committee, shareholders also approved the proposed remuneration for the Board and non-executive members of the erstwhile National Council of the NSE.
The shareholders at the AGM, approved the Group’s proposals to introduce equity-based incentives to employees’ remuneration, including an Employee Share Ownership Plan and a Long-Term Incentive Plan, aligning the interests of internal stakeholders with those of other shareholders in long term value creation.
