Big Stocks Outperforming Nigeria’s Bearish Equity Market

With Nigeria’s stock market still largely in negative regions a little more than three months to the end of 2019, investors’ confidence in the market has not improved but some big stocks have surprised to the upside, returning value more than 10 percent year-long.

Stocks like Dangote Flour, MTN Nigeria, Union Bank of Nigeria, Cadbury, Access Bank and Lafarge Wapco, among others, have defied investors’ bearish sway and beaten Nigeria’s main equity gauge which saw an uptick on Friday but has lost 11.87 percent since January.

Leading the outliers, Dangote Flour has surged 223.36 percent to N22.15 per share since it opened around N6 per share in January.

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MTN Nigeria which listed by introduction in May at N90 per share is currently trading around N140 a unit-this means investors who have held the mobile phone network share since its debut have seen 41.41 percent gain.

Union Bank has returned 25 percent capital gain to its investors so far in the year. The mid-tier bank opened at N5.6 per share on January 2 but is currently trading at N7 per share.

Cement Maker, Lafarge Wapco Plc, is one of the best preforming stocks on Lagos bourse. The industrial goods company’s share trades at N15.10 per share currently, up 21.29 percent from the start of the year.

Sterling Bank, a mid-tier lender, has returned 14.74 percent to investors that have held its share till date. At the close of trading Friday the bank share was at N2.18 per share.

Also with the advancers, listed consumer goods player, Cadbury has outperformed the All Share Index with 9.5 percent gains since January. The stock opened at N10 in January.

Access Bank, a tier-one lender, has seen its shares rally 8.09 percent as at the close of trading on Friday. The bank stock currently trades at N7.35 per share.

Analysts say a lot of fundamentally sound stocks are at levels very attractive and promising for value investors.

The equity market however has not bottomed-out, they say.

The market currently swings as bargain hunters position in value stocks and profit takers sell their holdings.