Investors scoop up Access, Fidelity, UBA stocks ahead of Q3 scorecards

Investors in Nigerian stocks are reportedly snatching up banking stocks at discounted prices in advance of the third quarter (Q3) financial scorecards, which were recently released and marked by GTCO's first noteworthy salvo.

Wednesday's early trading saw a lot of activity in the stocks of Access Corporation, Fidelity Bank, and United Bank for Africa.

As of 12:15 PM, investors had exchanged 35,915,183 units of Access Corporation valued at N607.7 million, 25,705,474 units of Fidelity Bank valued at N210.076 million, and 14,010,268 units of UBA valued at N276.81 million.

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To approve the company's Q3 results, The Board of Directors of Access Corporation is currently meeting. The UBA Board will meet on Friday, October 27, to discuss and approve the company's 2023 Financial Statements and Reports for the period ended September 30, 2023. Fidelity Bank's board meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, October 26, to review and approve its Q3 financials.

After starting the week on the negative note, the market is now up as buy-side activity on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has resumed.

Analysts at United Capital stated, "We anticipate mixed investor sentiment in the equities market to continue this week." As investors try to get in position ahead of the 9M-2023 earnings season, we expect further improvements in positive sentiment. The general uptick in positive sentiment will continue to be hampered by the low earnings expectations.

"As GTCO's 9M 2023 numbers show a 133 percent and 182 percent growth in top-line and bottom-line growth, respectively, fueling the positive sentiment is the expectation of impressive earnings results from the outstanding banks," stated Lagos-based Vetiva Research.

They had anticipated that the positive sentiment from Tuesday would penetrate today's trading session.