Nigeria’s stock market powered higher by +6.49percent or N958billion in the four-day trading week ended October 30 as the Bulls continued to dictate the direction of the market.
This led to positive closes across all NSE sectoral indexes. In the month of October, the stock market rallied by 13.76 percent, helping to push the year-to-date positive return to new high of +13.74percent.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index ASI rose above 30,000 psychological points to 30,530.69 points while the value of listed stocks increased to N15.957trillion, from week open low of 28,697.06 points and N14.999trillion respectively.
The returns on a number of fundamentally sound stocks were seen better than fixed income (FI) yields, making Africa’s largest economy’s equities market continue to enjoy positive patronage despite recent protest that marred economic activities.
“The Nigerian equities market powered to yet another positive weekly close as the NSEASI advanced by 6.39percent week-on-week (WoW) to settle at 30 ,530.69points.
“Year-to-Date (YtD) return expanded to 13.74percent. All sectoral indices closed up this week…The 9M:2020 earnings season swung into full gear as we witnessed a flurry of corporate results released by WAPCO, FLOURMILL, STANBIC, SEPLAT, NESTLE amongst others. Overall, the performances have been mixed, with some companies growing both top and bottom-line, while others contracted,” Meristem research analysts said in their October 30 note to investors.
With a better than expected results being posted by bellwether stocks and more of such expected in the next few trading sessions, market watchers anticipate an extended bullish performance.
Though, with consecutive sessions of capital appreciation recorded in the review trading week, the possibility of profit taking on recent gains cannot be overruled.
“Following the latest results of the PMA in the fixed income (FI) market, where yields for short term dated instruments printed below 1percent, fund/portfolio managers continued to channel funds into the equities market, leading to a number of fundamentally sound stocks closing the week deep in the green, while also improving trading turnover in the market”, research analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities said.
They expect no deviation from this bullish pattern in the new week “as most bellwethers remain below their expected intrinsic value, though the possibility of profit taking cannot be overruled.”
