Nigeria’s stock market is expected to start this new week on a positive note, as portfolio/fund managers re-balance their equity portfolio ahead of the second-half (H2) which commences on Wednesday July 1 .
The market will today Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30 being the last two trading sessions of this first-half (H1) 2020 witness improved activity level, preferably on the buy side of the remote trading session.
Before now, investors had continued to price-in the risk of increasing cases of Covid-19 on the economy and businesses. More Nigerians are dying from Coronavirus, new cases increasing and recoveries seemingly dropping.
“In our opinion, risks remain on the horizon due to a combination of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and weak economic conditions. Thus, we continue to advise investors to trade cautiously and seek trading opportunities in only fundamentally justified stocks”, according to Lagos based analysts at Cordros Capital.
Despite a positive close last week, sentiment at the domestic bourse remained weak, as stock investors took profits on large-cap stocks.
“The domestic market remained pressured as the fear of the second wave of the Coronavirus took a toll on investors’ confidence (evidenced by four of the five trading sessions of the week closing south)’, said equity research analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities.
Nigerian equities market ended the last trading session of the week on a positive note, recording an increase of 0.83percent on Friday June 26.
The market halted its six consecutive sessions of capital depreciation, driven by gains in stocks like Airtel Africa Plc, Nestle Nigeria Plc, UACN Plc and ETI Plc.
Increased bargains in favour these stocks helped to reroute the benchmark performance indicator which ended the trading week on a positive note, after rising by +0.01 percent week-on-week (WoW).
