Bears start off the Week’s race… ASI down 0.4%

The local bourse opened the week on a bearish note on the back of sell pressure on WAPCO (-9.9%), UBA (-5.1%), and ACCESS (-2.3%), as such the benchmark index shed 0.4% to 42,008.60 points. Consequently, the YTD return moderated to 4.3% while market capitalisation shed ₦83.1bn to ₦21.9tn. Trading activity strengthened as volume and value traded rose 133.3% and 84.3% respectively to 422.2m units and ₦4.5bn. FBNH (128.9m units), STERLNBANK (77.8m units), and GTCO (47.8m units) led by volume while FBNH (₦1.5bn), GTCO (₦1.1bn), and ZENITH (₦240.6m) led by value.

Across our sector coverage, performance was bearish as 5 indices lost while the AFR-ICT index closed flat. The Insurance index led laggards, down 1.8% following profit-taking in AIICO (-5.4%) and MANSARD (-3.7%). Trailing, the Banking and Industrial Goods indices declined 1.4% and 0.6% respectively owing to sell pressure on UBA (-5.1%), ACCESS (-2.3%), and WAPCO (-9.9%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices shed 0.3% and 0.1% respectively due to losses in DANGSUGAR (-3.1%), UNILEVER (-4.0%), and ETERNA (-4.1%). 

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), weakened to 0.4x from 0.7x as 10 stocks advanced while 24 stocks declined. ROYALEX (+9.4%), MEYER (+9.1%), and CHIPLC (+9.1%) led gainers while WAPCO (-9.9%), LINKASSURE (-8.9%), and ABCTRANS (-8.8%) led decliners. We expect the local bourse to sustain the bearish performance in the next trading session due to the weak investor sentiment.

ETI reported its 9M:2021 results which showed a 3.9% y/y increase in net interest income to $697.2m. Operating profit rose 18.9% to $528.1m following a 4.2% decline in OPEX to $737.2m. Also, PAT grew 846.6% to $256.2m from $27.1m in 9M:2020 due to the absence of goodwill impairment (9M:2020 – $159.4m).

Market Statistics for Monday, 6th December 2021 

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