7 March 2022: Despite the recovery seen in the consumer goods and insurance sectors, the equity market closed the day and week in the red zone, as the All-Share index declined by 6bps to settle at 47,268.61 points. The red close was largely driven by further price decline in the banking sector with the likes of WEMABANK (-211bps), STERLNBANK (-194bps), ETI (-136bps), GTCO (-133bps), and UBA (-120bps) cancelling out gains in UCAP (+530bps), FCMB (+333bps), HONYFLOUR (+278bps), and OANDO (+208bps). Furthermore, in the absence of block transactions, market activity declined with trade volumes decreasing by 26.35% to 179m units, while turnover fell by 69.12% to N2.1 billion. Lastly, amid an almost even split between buyers and sellers, market breadth closed positive at 1.05x, after 20 stocks gained and 19 declined.

What will shape the market tomorrow?

The week traded largely bearish, as seen in the negative WTD return across the sectors except for the impressive return posted in oil and gas sector, courtesy of the bullish sentiments in SEPLAT. We expect to see investors take advantage of the price declines in some of these counters thereby improving market performance. 

Stocks to Watch

On the bid Cart: A few insurance names – REGALINS, LINKASSURE and CHIPLC topped today’s gainers chart after trading mixed this week. However, today’s 60bps gain wasn’t enough to reverse the losses posted earlier in the week, as the NGXINS closed 17bps lower w/w.  

On the Offer Cart: Sell pressure persisted in GTCO today, as the banking counter closed the week down by 3.35% to settle at N26, completely eroding YTD gain.

Source: Vetiva Securities Limited at Victoria Island