With just a trading day left in the third quarter of 2019, analysts and other stakeholders in the nation’s capital market have started to fine-tune their strategies for the last quarter of the year and beyond. The Nigerian capital market year to date has defiled all projections with investors now opting for bargain hunting when the opportunities arise.
The market capitalisation of listed stocks closed last Friday at N13.47 trillion, which translated to a gain of N266.5 billion in the third quarter of 2019, and a year to date appreciation of N1.75 trillion.
On the flip side, the All Share Index ended the week at 27,675.04 points, which amounted to a year to date returns of -11.95 percent. The stocks listed under the Nigerian consumer goods remained the worst-performing stocks, having shed 25.17 percent from their opening prices on January 1,2019. The main board index was equally down by -22.35 percent. And the Oil and Gas index at -21.08 percent; Lotus Islamic Index at -20.90; Pension Index at -18.03 percent complete the list of sub sectoral indexes that have grossly underperformed the market year to date.
Notwithstanding the market sentiment, some stocks continue to remain in the positive territory, giving investors hope that all is not lost. Dangote Flour, which closed last Friday at N22.40 percent topped the list of outperforming stocks, having gained 227 percent year to date. Cornerstone Insurance appreciated by 110 percent to close at N0.42 per share. Since its listing on the main board of the NSE, MTN Nigeria has appreciated by 51.1 percent to close year to date at N136 per share.
BOC Gases’ share price has appreciated by 45.4 percent YTD. Others are John Holt, 38.6 percent; WAPCO, 28.5 percent; Caverton, 25 percent; Chams, 20 percent and Transnationwide Express, 18.5 percent.
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