AIICO to give bonus shares as Bulls hold sway as Stock trading

 
AIICO Insurance PLC (the “Company”) at the floor of the Stock Exchange said that the company would be holding its 51st Annual General Meeting (“Meeting”) on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at Lagos Marriot Hotel, 122 Joel Ogunnaike Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos State at 12:00 pm. According to the company, the special business would be to approve the sum of ₦6.97bn from the company’s share premium account and ₦3.49bn from the company’s retained earnings as bonus shares. The bonus shares (₦10.46bn) worth 20.92bn ordinary shares of 50k each, would be appropriated to the members whose names appear in the Register of members at the close of business on the 23rd November 2021. A proportion of Twelve (12) shares would be allocated for every Nine (9) shares already held by such member, subject to the approval of the appropriate regulatory authorities.

The stock market extended gains from the previous session due to sustained interest in MTNN, WAPCO and AIRTELAFR. Accordingly, the NGX All-Share Index rose 1.1% to 43,730.55 points while market capitalisation rose ₦252.4bn to ₦22.8tn. Likewise, YTD return improved to 8.6% from 7.4% in the prior session. Market activity tapered as volume and value traded fell by 36.7% and 31.1% respectively to 280.7m units and ₦3.5bn. STERLNBANK (83.3m units), UACN (34.2m units), and ZENITH (17.5m units) led by volume while MTNN (₦1.1bn), ZENITH (₦427.2m), and UACN (₦360.5m) recorded the most value.

Performance across sectors under our coverage was bullish as 5 indices closed in the green while 1 lost. The AFR-ICT index continued to outperform, up 3.3% due to price appreciation in MTNN (+3.9%) and AIRTELAFR (+2.6%). Similarly, the Industrial and Consumer Goods indices gained 0.2% apiece as investors bought WAPCO (+3.5%), DANGSUGAR (+2.4%) and FLOURMILL (+1.4%). Meanwhile, buy interest in ARDOVA (+7.4%), ACCESS (+0.5%) and FIDELITY (+1.9) supported a 0.1% gain in the Oil & Gas and Banking indices each. On the other hand, the Insurance index shed 0.3% as the sole laggard, dragged by WAPIC (-4.0%) and MBENEFIT (-3.9%). 
 
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), improved to 1.5x from 0.7x as 24 stocks advanced while 16 stocks shed prices. ABCTRANS (+10.0%), FTNCOCOA (+10.0%), and ARDOVA (+7.4%) led gainers while BERGER (-9.5%), CAVERTON (-9.1%), and UPL (-7.4%) led decliners. We expect to see mild gains in the next trading session as the telco-induced rally cools off.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 9th November 2021