Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc pushed higher on Thursday even as the financial stocks it sits alongside fell, its shares gaining 6.7% to ₦8.00 to place among the five best performers on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) while the NGX Banking Index dropped 2.04%.

The gain ran counter to a market in retreat for a second straight session. The All-Share Index eased 0.7%, decliners outnumbered advancers by more than two to one, and roughly ₦1.65 trillion was wiped from total equities value over the two days as investors locked in gains from the exchange’s July rally.

Sterling Financial was among the day’s few risers, finishing third on the gainers’ table and changing hands 36.01 million times for about ₦286.8 million.

The move comes days after the Group reported a 20.4% rise in first-half profit after tax, to ₦50.30 billion, alongside continued growth in deposits and a balance sheet now approaching ₦5 trillion.

Its capital footing has also firmed. A ₦96.6 billion public offer completed during the half lifted shareholders’ funds 27.8% to ₦547.7 billion, giving the Group more room to lend as activity picks up. Underlying the half-year run is a franchise earning more on its assets than a year earlier.

Net interest income rose 41.0% to ₦137.4 billion, return on average equity stood at 20.6%, and return on average assets improved to 2.35% from 2.05%.

The Group is showcasing the kind of profile that tends to attract buyers even in a soft market.

Sterling Financial runs a diversified holding-company structure, with banking, non-interest finance and wealth management housed under Sterling Bank, The Alternative Bank and SterlingFI.

Analysts see little immediate respite for the wider market, expecting…