Nigeria’s stock market sees weekly gain of N155bn

Nigeria’s stock investors booked over N155 billion gain in the trading week ended Friday, September 4, amid renewed interest in the local bourse, despite pockets of profit taking activities.

Going further into September, the market will remain on this path to recovery after March’s lows.

The positive trend should be supported by investors buying banking stocks in move to qualify for interim dividends proposed by some lenders in their recently published half-year (H1) financials.

Unattractive yield environment coupled with buoyant liquidity in the financial system as well as some positive H1 earnings publication spur locals demand for equity, said United Capital research analyst.

Week-on-week (wow), the equities market of Africa’s largest economy closed in green as investors took advantage of cheap valuations of some banking, consumer goods, oil& gas and insurance stocks.

Related News

In the review trading week, NSE Banking Index increased by +2.76percent; NSE Oil & Gas Index (+3.65percent); NSE Insurance Index (+1.96percent); NSE Consumer Goods Index (+1.49percent), and NSE Industrial Index rose by +0.44percent.

“Given that a number of fundamentally sound stocks remain below their fair values, the bulls continued to take advantage of cheap valuations, as bargain hunting activities were recorded in all of the five trading sessions of the week”, said equity research analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities.

With the consecutive gains recorded in the review week, the analysts expect the market to trade mixed in new week, “with continued bargain hunting in some counters and profit taking in others.”

The market’s benchmark performance indicator –the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) –increased by 1.17percent to close at 25,605.64 points as against week-open low of at 25,309.37 points while the market capitalisation of listed stocks increased from N13.203 trillion to N13.358trillion.

The negative return recorded year-to-date (ytd) decreased to 4.61 percent. The market has increased by 1.10percent this month.

Iheanyi Nwachukwu

Iheanyi Nwachukwu, is a creative content writer with almost two decades journalism experience writing on banking, finance, capital markets, and tax. The multiple awards winning journalist is Assistant Editor, BusinessDay. Iheanyi holds BSc Degree in Economics from Imo State University; Master of Science (MSc) Degree in Management from University of Lagos. Iheanyi has attended several work-related trainings including (i) Advanced Writing and Reporting Skills (Pan African University, Lagos); (ii) News Agency Journalism (Indian Institute of Mass Communication {IIMC}, New Delhi, India); and (iii) Capital Markets Development and Regulations (International Law Institute {ILI} of Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA). Other trainings Iheanyi attended include: Economic/Political Risk Analysis (By Thomson Reuters Foundation); International Financial Journalism (IFJ) (By PMA Media Training, UK); Effective Business Writing Skills (By Phillips Consulting); Reporting on Corporate Governance (By International Finance Corporation (IFC) & Thomson Reuters Foundation UK); etc. In addition, he has participated in high-level economy & markets events in Dubai, South Africa, Morocco, and other African countries like Zambia, Ghana and Gambia.