Nigerian improved marginally Wednesday after MTN and banking stocks moved the market from its lowest index point in a month, breaking a seven-day losing streak, which is the longest since November.
Stocks gained 0.19 percent in the day’s trade as MTN gained 1.7 percent, UBA gained 3.8 percent, Access Bank gained 1.1 percent although the three biggest advancers were C&I Leasing (9.3%), Courtville Business Solutions (8.7%), and Oando (4.2%).
The market gain “is just a case of investors taking advantage of attractive entry points in certain stocks which have fallen to attractive levels,” said Gbolahan Ologunro, equity analyst at Lagos-based CSL Stockbrokers.
Nigeria suffered a downgrade from International Ratings agency Moody’s which sent stocks on downward spiralling; Moody’s changed Nigeria’s sovereign outlook from stable to negative and this rubbed off on big firms as their ratings also fell.
Already the market is down 15.9 percent and is unlikely to improve to a single-digit loss.
Ologunro says portfolio rebalancing by fund managers ahead of next year would result in similar price movements in the market which is set to extend a bearish run that began last year.
