AccessCorporation has said that it has received the Central Bank of Nigeria final approval for its wholly owned payment subsidiary, Hydrogen Payment ServicesCompany Limited. This is in line with the Corporation’s expansionary drive. The Stock market index fell marginally as price decline in FBNH, GTCO, and ACCESSCORP pushed the benchmark index lower by 5bps to 49,421.91 points. Accordingly, YTD return moderated to 15.7% (previously: 15.8%) while market capitalisation shed ₦3.2bn to ₦26.7tn. Activity level dampened asvolume and value traded declined 64.9% and 75.4% respectively to 51.9m unitsand ₦590m
Across our coverage sectors, performance was bearish as 4 indices lost, 1 gained while the AFR- ICT index closed flat. Losses in NEM (-6.1%) and OANDO (-0.6%) dragged the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices lower by 1.2% and 0.1% respectively. Trailing, the Industrial and Consumer Goods indices declined 3bps and 2bps sequentially courtesy of sell-offs in WAPCO (-0.4%) and CARDBURY (-5.5%). Conversely, the Banking index advanced 0.5% on account of bargain hunting in STANBIC(+1.7%), FIDELITY (+5.5%), and ZENITH (+0.8%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, improved to -0.03x (previously -0.04x) as 10 stocks gained, 12 lost while 78 closed flat. In the next trading session, we expect bargain hunting activities to drive mild gains on the local bourse.
