The top three gainers on the NGX in March 2022

The Nigerian equities market slowed its positive trend in March, recording its first monthly loss in the first quarter as global macroeconomic concerns impacted the market's performance.

For the month of March, the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 0.91 percent, opening at 47,394.53 basis points and ending at 46,965.48 basis points. The market capitalization fell in a similar fashion, falling from N25.5 trillion at the start of the month to N25.3 trillion at the end, marking a 0.91 percent drop.

Despite the fact that the market was down, these top gainers still put in a strong showing. The following stocks are among them:

WEMA BANK PLC 184.38 percent (WEMABANK)

Wema Bank is one of Nigeria's oldest financial institutions, with years of expertise in the banking industry. In terms of creating value for its stakeholders, the Bank has stayed inventive. This is because Wema Bank prides itself on being the first entirely digital bank in Africa, ALAT. The Bank is well-known for introducing new products and services that are customized to the demands of its customers at all stages of their lives.

On March 30th, we noticed a huge increase in its share price as the company completed its share reconstruction. The bank's management team presented two specific requests to its shareholders at its Annual General Meeting in May 2021, one of which was a request to reconstruct the company's shares base, which the company stated was to "enable the Bank to achieve an optimal share outstanding base that favorably compares with its listed banking peers as well as achieve cost efficiency from a transaction execution standpoint."

This request was granted, and the Bank began a right-sizing of its paid-up share capital during the year. By way of a Scheme, the Bank's share capital of N19,287,233,041, which consists of 38,574,466,082 ordinary shares with a nominal value of N0.50 apiece, was reconstructed at 33% of the current level. This brings the total number of shares to 12,858,155,360 ordinary N0.50 shares.

This means that the Bank's Paid-Up Capital will be reconstructed so that the Bank's Paid-Up Share Capital will be N6,429,077,680 and the issued ordinary shares attributable to Existing Shareholders will be 12,858,155,360 ordinary shares of N0.50k each.

The company's share price increased by 184.38 percent as a result of this share reconstruction, from N0.96 at the beginning of the month to N2.73 at the conclusion of the month.

PZ CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC (PZ) owns 50.71 percent of the company

PZ is a Nigerian consumer goods manufacturer and distributor, specializing in detergents, toiletries, soaps, and home appliances. It is a subsidiary of Manchester-based PZ Cussons Holdings, which holds the majority of the company's shares.

PZ administers Coolworld electrical stores and trades home appliances under the Haier Thermocool brand. Wilmar International has a joint venture with it to produce and trade vegetable oil and palm oil.

The increase in its stock price was due to its third-quarter performance, which saw revenue increase by 24 percent from over 60 billion in the first nine months of 2021 to 74.5 billion in the first nine months of 2022. PZ was able to achieve a profit before tax (PBT) of 6.3 billion, which is a 319.45 percent increase over the 1.5 billion of 2021, thanks to positive operating income returns and a 172.27 percent increase in other income from 2.1 billion to 5.7 billion. In the end, the company had a profit after tax (PAT) of 5.6 billion, an increase of 454.9 percent.

The company's share price increased by 50.71 percent in February, from N7 at the start of the month to N10.55 at the end of the month. In fact, the stock is currently trading at a level that is close to its 52-week high.

The company has 3,970,477,045 shares outstanding and a total market value of N41,888,532,824.75, based on yesterday's closing market price.

PRESCO PLC (PRESCO) 27.88%

Presco is an agricultural and industrial firm. The company is involved in oil palm plantation development, palm oil milling, palm kernel processing, and vegetable oil refining. It specializes in oil palm cultivation as well as crude palm oil extraction, refining, and fractionation into vegetable oil and palm stearin.

Due to the acquisition of SIAT Nigeria Limited (SNL), a private firm that also engages in the agriculture industry, for N23 billion in cash, the company was one of the top three gainers in March 2022. Although the firm's press release stated that it was seeking approval from its shareholders to acquire the company, the firm's most recent 2021 full-year results reveal that the company had already paid out N23 billion in cash for the acquisition of SIAT Nigeria Ltd and included it as an investment asset in its balance sheet, implying that its request for shareholders to approve the proposal is merely a request to rubber-stamp a deed that has already been completed.

The company's share price increased by 27.88 percent in March, from N104 at the start of the month to N133 at the end of the month. The company's stock is trading at a 52-week high, a level at which it has never traded before, indicating that it is in the process of price discovery.

Using the current market price as of yesterday's closing, the business has 1,000,000,000 shares outstanding and a total market capitalization of N133,000,000,000.00.

MEYER at 20.00 percent is another stock that has appreciated significantly, alongside 18.57 percent for NPFMCRFBK and 16.59 percent for UACN

On the downside, NIGERINS is leading the pack with a loss of 33.33 percent. RTBRISCOE and LEARNAFRCA follow with losses of 30.59 percent and 24.90 percent, respectively.