The Nigerian stock market continued its gaining streak defying the prevailing economic down turn with the investors gaining N1.2 trillion in the first three trading days of this week. One of the market indicators, market capitalization, which represents the value of all stocks in the market, rose 7.3 per cent to close yesterday at N17.383 trillion against N16.206 trillion recorded last Friday.
Similarly, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE All Share Index, ASI, went up by 7.3 per cent or 2,252.19 points to close at 33,268.36 points from 31,016.17 points.
Financial analysts have stated that some of the corporate results released for the third quarter, Q3’20, many be the driver of the current bullish trend. Analysts at InvestData Limited said : “Looking at the numbers released so far, it seems that corporate performance has remain resilient in the face of the lingering economic downturn and challenges, making earnings that have come better than expected to give investors insight into how they should position ahead of year-end and the 2021 corporate actions.
“In repositioning your portfolio to take advantage of new opportunities in the market, your investment goals and strategies will guide you as per entry and exit strategies to avoid being trapped in any position. Dividend yields above 7.5% should be the target of investors at this time.”
Meanwhile, analysis of trading on Wednesday shows that investors gained N234 billion with market capitalisation moving to N17.4 trillion reaching the highest this year. Consequently, the stock market major benchmark, NSE ASI advanced 1.9 per cent to close at 33,268.36 points on the back of gains in MTN Nigeria (2.4 per cent), Nigerian Breweries (9.5 per cent ) and BUA Cement (2.4 percent ).
Year-to-Date, YtD, return improved to 23.9 per cent. Meanwhile, activity level surged as volume and value traded increased by 48.3 per cent and 17.0 per cent to 858.2million units and N9.1billion respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were First Bank Nigeria Holding, FBNH (145.1million units), Transcorp (126.3million units) and Zenith Bank (60.8million units) while Zenith Bank (N1.5billion), Guaranty Trust Bank (N1.2billion and Dangote Cement (N1.1billion) led by value. Performance remained positive for all the six indices monitored. The Banking and Consumer Goods indices advanced 4.1per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively to lead the gainers, buoyed by price appreciation in Zenith Bank (4.5 per cent), Guaranty Trust Bank (2.9 per cent), and Nigerian Breweries (9.5 percent).
– Vanguard