BUA Foods, others drive market’s N262bn gain as week opens

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation increased by 0.74percent or N262billion on Monday to 65,202.41 points and N35.684 trillion respectively as against 64,721.09 points and N35.422 trillion recorded the preceding trading day.

BUA Foods led the league of advancers after its share price increased from N139.90 to N152.90, up by N13 or 9.29percent.

Other top gainers include John Holt which rose from N1.45 to N1.59, up by 14kobo or 9.66percent; SCOA which rose from N1.17 to N1.28, adding 11kobo or 9.40percent; and Axa Mansard which also increased from N3.65 to N3.90, adding 25kobo or 6.85percent.

Livestock Feeds rallied from N1.76 to N1.88, adding 12kobo or 6.82percent.

Month-to-date (MtD), the market has risen by 1.34percent while this year, it has risen 27.22percent. In 5,494 deals, investors exchanged 231,599,974 shares valued at N3.992billion.

Transcorp, Universal Insurance, GTCO, Jaiz Bank, CHI Plc were actively traded stocks.

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“This week, we see investors buy-interest strengthen. This will come on the back of Federal Government’s recent intervention in the FX market. We believe that this will propel the return of some of the stray funds back into the Nigerian equities market.

“That said, we project that investors’ interest toward the NT-bill segment will remain positive in the coming week, pending the injection of the next liquidity (FAAC).

“This expectation is expected to trickle into the equities market in form of a bear market,” said Lagos-based research analysts at United Capital.

In their “weekly stock recommendation and corporate benefit trigger”, research analysts at Meristem said that the positive sentiment in the Nigerian equities market is gradually waning.

“For four consecutive trading weeks, the market breadth has consistently remained below 1x, indicating more tickers recording week-on-week losses than gainers. Thus, we expect this sentiment to linger this week.

“Also, we underscore that the Government’s efforts to address the macroeconomic challenges in the country, including the NNPCL loan from AFREXIM Bank and palliatives to states could potentially entice investors to take long position on stocks in the local bourse.

“However, we maintain that these investors (especially foreign investors) will seek more long-lasting solutions to improve FX stability challenges. In addition, the tight system liquidity ahead of the NTBills auction this week is likely to cause a flow of funds from the equities market. Overall, we expect the local bourse to close down this week,” Meristem analysts said.