Fidelity to raise $500m from international debt market

Fidelity Bank Plc (the “Bank”) notified the public of its intention to raise capital from the international debt capital market via the issuance of unsecured notes worth US$500m expected to mature in 2026. The bank plans to list the notes on the Irish Stock Exchange and has commenced investors meeting on October 18, 2021. Meanwhile On resumption from the public holiday, the local bourse returned to a bullish note on the back of bargain hunting in MTNN (+1.2%) and FBNH (+3.8%), as well as buying interest in NGXGROUP (+10.0%). Accordingly, the All-Share index advanced 26bps to 41,249.71 points while market capitalisation gained ₦54.8bn to ₦21.5tn. Meanwhile, YTD return improved to 2.6%. Trading activity strengthened as volume and value traded rose 47.5% and 25.2% respectively to 499.5m units and ₦5.1bn. The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (147.6m units), ETRANZACT (105.2m units), and ACCESS (27.9m units) while FBNH (₦1.8bn), GTCO (₦612.9m), and NESTLE (₦541.7m) led by value.

Performance across sectors within our coverage was mixed as 3 indices gained while 3 indices lost. The AFR-ICT index advanced the most, up 68bps due to bargain hunting in MTNN (+1.2%). Trailing, the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices rose 58bps and 4bps respectively as a result of price uptick in NEM (+3.6%), WAPIC (+4.2%), and WAPCO (+0.6%). Conversely, the Oil & Gas index recorded a loss of 39bps  driven by profit-taking in OANDO (-2.0%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Banking indices fell 24bps and 20bps respectively on account of selloffs in INTBREW (-3.0%), CADBURY (-5.9%), UBN (-5.7%), and ACCESS (-1.0%).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), strengthened to 1.2x from 0.9x as 20 stocks advanced against 17 declining stocks. NGXGROUP (+10.0%), GLAXOSMITH (+6.9%), and NPFMCRFBK (+5.8%) led the gainers while PRESTIGE (-8.5%), ACADEMY (-8.3%), and CHIPLC (-8.3%) led the losers. In the next trading session, we expect the bullish performance to persist on the back of the renewed investor sentiment.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 20th October 2021