NGX Investors Look Ahead of the Week With Hopes for a Bullish Outburst

The Nigerian stock exchange finished last week on a positive note as stock investors got a total of 4.3 trillion naira after five consecutive week trading days where investors won all through.

Last week's market performance was positive as the All-Share Index increased by 8.32% week-on-week to surpass the 100,000 mark to a historic high of 102,401.88 points. Market capitalisation increased by N4.30 trillion to finish the week at N56.038 trillion.

The NGX Industrial Index gained 23.20% week-on-week, which can be attributed to the positive performances of NGX Oil & Gas. NGX Consumer Goods indices closed the week positively, rising by 11.57% and 5.29%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the NGX Banking and NGX Insurance indices declined by 1.63% and 4.10% week-on-week, respectively.

Top Gainers for last week: Tripple Gee & Company led with 32.24% to close at N2.83 per share. Dangote Cement followed with a gain of 28.82% to close at N694.10, while SUNU Assurance went up by 25.00% to close at N2.25 per share.

Top Losers for last week: Veritas Kapital Assurance led with 23.38% to close at 59 kobo per share. The Initiates Plc (TIP) followed with a 21.77 decline to close at N2.30, while Cadbury Nigeria declined by 20.86% to close at N22.95 per share.

The total turnover was 2.981 billion shares worth N57.873 billion in 67,962 deals traded by investors last week in the NGX. This contrasts a total of 5.179 billion shares valued at N77.797 billion that exchanged hands last week in 79,012 deals.

For this week, the Nigerian stock market is expected to sustain positive sentiment to close trading for January.

Analysts predict that the Nigerian stock market is expected to close positively as investors continue to seek bargain-hunting opportunities.

This week, analysts at Afrinvest Limited said, "We anticipate market performance to be driven by positive sentiment."

Looking ahead to the week, Cowry Assets Management Limited said there will be a steady continuation of positive sentiments in the local stock market.

• The optimism is expected to persist as the market eagerly awaits more corporate earnings releases, poised to act as catalysts driving market activities.

• However, we foresee a mixed trend with a possibility of profit-taking. Investors will likely engage in sectoral rotation, capitalizing on stocks that experience pullbacks to position themselves strategically. This rotation strategy is expected to create buying opportunities, especially in anticipation of upcoming releases from early filers in the corporate reporting season.

• Amidst all these, we continue to advise investors to take positions in stocks with consistent track records of dividend payments and strong fundamentals and growth prospects to support earnings growth.