The Nigerian equities is expected to keep up momentum from last week as investors position themselves ahead of the release of companies Q3 earnings scorecards.
The All Share Index (ASI) added 0.05 percent to 38,962.28 points from 38,943.97 points the preceding week. Market capitalization also grew by N9.6 billion to close at N20.28 trillion during the week.
“The financial sector, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and oil and gas were majorly responsible for the uptrend,” analysts at Access Bank noted.
According to analysts at PFI Capital Research, the bullish trend was as a result of buy pressures in bellwether stocks such as CONOIL (14.09 percent) and MRS (9.75 percent).
“PHARMDEKO and NAHCO topped the market gainers with 32.10 percent and 15.13 percent (Week on Week) WoW respectively, while SCOA and PRESCO were the top laggers with declines of 17.92 percent and 8.18 percent respectively WoW,” PFI analysts noted.
The activity level strengthened as the trade volume and value increased by 50.70 percent and 29.47 percent respectively compared to last week. A total turnover of 1.290 million shares worth N13.921 billion in 16,745 deals were traded during the week by investors on the floor of the Exchange. Trading in the top three equities by volume were FBNH, UBA and GTCO.
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They accounted for 626.958 million shares worth N5.766 billion in 2,526 deals; contributing 48.58 percent and 41.42 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Outlook for the week
Analysts expect the equities market to continue the bullish trend.
“This week, we expect the momentum on the local bourse to remain elevated on improved investor sentiment,” analysts at Afrinvest said.
Paul Uzum, Stock broker at Golden securities also explained that the equities market will go up this week because it is the last week of the quarter and investors will take position ahead of Q3 earnings releases. Uzum mentioned that BUA cement stocks is one to look out for this week.
Analysts at PFI Capital Research also expect bullish momentum to persist in the coming week as the equities market still presents decent opportunities for investors chasing positive real return on investments.
Despite analysts’ optimistic outlook for the week, Nigerian stocks have been unable to sustain the momentum from last week as the ASI plunged 0.25 percent at 38,864.33, Monday.
The pull back was triggered by BUA cement whose shares fell 2.94 percent to N66. Guaranty Trust Bank’s shares also plunged 0.54 percent to N27.60, Monday.
The ASI Index has lost 3.49 percent year-to-date.
