Stock market records losses, ASI down 6bps

Today, sell pressure on FBNH (-6.1%), TRANSCOHOT (-9.9%), and INTBREW (-2.8%) drove a negative performance on the local bourse. Consequently, the NGX All-share index declined 6bps to 41,790.26 points, market capitalisation fell ₦12.9m to ₦21.8tn while YTD return remained unchanged at 3.8%. Market activity weakened as volume and value declined 18.3% and 42.5% respectively to 284.6m units and ₦3.2bn. The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (75.5m units), AIICO (18.4m units), and ETI (17.3m units) while FBNH (₦898.0m), NESTLE (₦387.9m), and NGXGROUP (₦248.0m) led by value.

Sector performance within our coverage was bullish as 4 indices gained while the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices closed flat. Conversely, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices led the gainers, up 1.7% and 1.5% respectively following price uptick in OANDO (+2.0%), TOTAL (+6.0%), AIICO (+9.6%), and SOVRENIN (+4.4%). Also, buying interest in ZENITH (+0.8%), ACCESS (+0.5%), and WAPCO (+0.8%) buoyed a 0.5% and 0.1% upside in the Banking and Industrial Goods indices respectively.

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), strengthened to 1.5x from 1.0x as 23 stocks gained against 15 losers. AIICO (+9.6%), UPL (+9.1%), and REDSTAREX (+6.3%) led gainers while GLAXOSMITH (-10.0%), TRANSCOHOT (-9.9%), and FBNH (-6.0%) led the laggards. We expect the market to rebound in the next trading session as the positive signal from the 9M:2021 earnings performance of some market bellwethers boost valuation.

HONYFLOUR reported its H1:2021 results which showed a 19.3% y/y increase in revenue to ₦67.9bn. Gross profit declined 23.9% y/y to ₦6.7bn due to a 27.2% y/y growth in Cost of sales. Also, PAT grew 73.0% y/y to ₦353.0m as OPEX declined 30.6% to ₦3.5bn.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 27th October 2021