Further bull dominance in stocks expected this week amidst more earning reports release

By Nkiruka Nnorom

AS half year, 2017 (H1’17) earning reports continue to roll into the market, analysts have said that the market will witness another mix trading this week.
The market halted a four day rally on Friday leading to loss of 1.02 per cent in the All Share index, ASI, at week close, a development that broke the 16 sessions of continuous bullish run.

Investment analysts said that the equities market would mirror this same trend this week.
Analysts at Vetiva Capital Management, a Lagos based investment house, said that due to the release of a slew of H1’17 earnings at week close, “we expect further mixed trading at the start of next week albeit amidst strong market activity”, adding: “Given market expectation of mostly positive earnings, we anticipate an overall bullish trading tilt in the coming week.

In their own forecast, analysts at Cowry Assets Management, another Lagos based investment house stated: “We expect a mix of profit taking and bargain hunting activities amid improvement in the external sector which is a boost to investor confidence.”

“We expect more financial scorecards in the coming week and anticipate that trading activities might mirror the current trend as investors continue to react to impressive financial performances,” analysts at Meristem Securities Limited said.

Meanwhile, a breakdown of activity at the Nigerian Stock Exchange last week showed a bullish outing, which resulted in further increase in twin market performance indicators, the ASI and market capitalisation by 8.36 per cent apiece to close at 36,864.71 points and N12.71 trillion respectively.

The positive sentiment pervaded the entire market as all the sectoral indices closed higher compared to the previous week. The banking sector recorded the highest return, rising by 9.52 per cent on the back 12.85 per cent and 13.33 per cent gains in Zenith Bank Plc and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI Plc.

The consumer goods sector followed, returning 7.53 per cent, while the industrial goods sector trailed behind with 5.94 per cent, driven by increase in Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, which rose by 19.34 per cent. The oil and gas sector chalked up by 3.08 per cent, while the insurance sector was up 1.96 per cent. However, the Alternative Securities Market, AseM, which had always been stagnant, depreciated last week by 1.09 per cent as Chellarams Plc, a new entrant to the AseM market went down by 4.99 per cent.

Further breakdown showed that Conoil Plc led 50 other gainers during the week by 21.41 per cent to close at n36.40, followed by Presco Plc with 20 per cent increase to close at N73.20, while Dangote Sugar Refinery, May & Baker Plc and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc closed as the last five on the top gainers list, rising by 19.34 per cent, 15.77 per cent and 15.51 per cent to close at N10.86, N3.23 and N37.53 per share respectively.

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