Bank stocks drive market’s N884bn gain in week ended Feb. 7

In the trading week that ended Friday, February 7, investors in Nigeria’s stock market gained about N884 billion as the market rose by 1.38 per cent. This record positive follows five consecutive days of positive closes in the week under review. Year-to-date (YTD), the stock market has risen by 2.92 per cent.

The record gain was driven majorly by banking stocks as evidenced in the NGX Banking Index which rose most by 4.66 percent. Further look at major sectoral indices shows that NGX Insurance Index was up by 1.61 percent in the review week, and NGX Industrial Index (+0.85percent). While NGX Consumer Goods Index was down by 0.60 percent week-on-week, NGX Oil & Gas Index rose by 0.56 percent.

Barring the limited changes to the drivers of sentiment in the market, analysts expect buy-side pressure to persist as investors pursue attractive offers as they also position ahead of companies full year corporate rewards.

In the review trading week, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities Market Capitalisation increased from 104,496.12 points and N64.708trillion respectively to 105,933.03 points and N65.592 trillion.