Despite the profit taking activities experienced in mid week trading last week, the stock market ended positively with investors carting home with N1.85 trillion gains from their investment.
The market capitalisation which represents total value of investment in the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX surged to N45.442 trillion on Friday from N43.593 trillion the previous week.
Analysts have emphasized that portfolio rebalancing on the Exchange continued as earnings and the dividend season draws closer with unaudited fourth quarter 2023, Q4’23 results hitting the market any moment from now.
Also, more companies like BUA Foods and others notified the NGX and investors of their board meetings and closed period for the 2023 full-year financials, in the midst of January effects and other factors associated with the increasing economic headwinds
Furthermore, another major market performance indicator, NGX All Share Index, ASI increased to 83,042.96 points from 79,664.66 points the previous week, resulting to 4.2% Week on Week, W/W gain while Year-to-Date,YtD gain hits +11.1%.
Meanwhile, a review of market activities showed that investors’ interest in BUA Foods propelled its share price increase by 15.5%, Dangote Cement 7.7%, TRANSCORP 17.9% and Guaranty Trust Holding Company, GTCO 8.9%.
On sectoral performance, the Consumer Goods Index up 9.6%, Insurance Index 7.6%, Banking Index 5.1% and Industrial Goods Index 4.8%, while the Oil and Gas Index declined by 1.6%.
Reacting to the market performance, analysts at Cordros Research stated: “In the short term, we expect market performance to be dominated by the bulls, as positioning for 2023 full year earnings releases and accompanying dividends declarations should outweigh profit-taking activities. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Commenting as well, analysts from InvestData Consulting stated: “We expect mixed sentiment and profit taking to continue, this week as bargain hunters and ongoing portfolio persist ahead of unaudited Q4 2023 numbers and volatility in the face of expected December Consumer Price Index, CPI and coming Monetary Policy Committee, MPC meeting. A pullback at this point will add more strength to upside potential. As such, investors should take advantage of price correction. Also looking at the trends and events across the globe and domestically.”
