Aradel, other stocks drive Santa-Claus rally on NGX

The usual Santa-Claus rally on the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) this period continued on Monday as the market rose by 0.55 percent at the close of trading.

This positive close comes after last week’s 1.19 percent increase as investors position ahead of year-end.

This month, the market has risen by 2.48 percent. The market’s return year-to-date (YtD) rose to 33.63 percent.

Investors who bought stocks like Aradel (N50 or +10 percent), Africa Prudential (N1.55 or +9.87 percent), Golden Guinea (76 kobo or +9.64 percent), Ikeja Hotel (80kobo or +10 percent), and Caverton (18kobo or +10 percent) helped push the market higher.

Ahead of Monday’s trading, analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva research said they retain a cautiously optimistic outlook for the market this

week, “we cannot rule out the possibility of profit-taking in names that have had strong gains last week”.

The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) increased from preceding day’s 99,378.06 points to 99,922.63 points.

“The broad market’s positive momentum is expected to persist, supported by an improved market breath, which expanded significantly by +47.88 percent week-on-week (WoW) to2.38x (compared to 1.61x last week), as short-term bargain hunting and Santa-Claus rally continues,” said Meristem research analysts in their recent note.