President Muhammadu Buhari assignment of portfolios to new ministers on Wednesday appeared to be the magic wand that stimulated positive sentiments as investors trading in Nigeria’s stock market gained a whopping sum of over N403 billion approximately in five consecutive sessions.
Market analysts had projected that last week sessions would end in the negative territory following the bearish performance in the previous week.
Specifically, analysts at Afrinvest said: “We expect sell pressures to dominate in the near-term given the generally negative mood and absence of catalyst to spur investor interest.”
But Monday’s session saw the equities market starting the week in the green as price appreciation in MTNN, Zenith Bank and Stanbic IBTC drove the All Share Index (ASI) higher by 0.71 per cent to 27,115.89 points.
Consequently, YTD loss eased to -13.7 per cent while investors gained N93 billion as market capitalisation printed at N13.214 trillion.
Tuesday’s session would have been positive for investors, however, late sell-offs in the shares MTNN led to negative market return of 0.21 per cent to 27,058.62 points.
Therefore, the Month-to-Date and Year -to-Date losses worsened to -2.38 and -13.91 per cent respectively while market capitalisation dropped N28 billion to settle at N13.186 trillion.
However, there was a reversal in investors’ sentiment as the stock market gained N120 billion following strong buying interest in the shares of MTNN and Nestle while the benchmark index rose by 1.09 per cent to settle the index level at 27,352.94 points on Wednesday.
The equities market further sustained bullish performance as buying interest in MTNN, Nestle and Dangote Cement pushed ASI up by 1.0 per cent to 27,629.66 points.
Similarly, YTD loss slowed to -12.1 per cent and market capitalisation increased by N135 billion to N13.441 trillion on Thursday.
Friday’s session saw further gains as the ASI notched up 0.62 per cent to close the week at 27,800.17 points while the market capitalization closed at N13.524 trillion.
Checks by Sunday Sun revealed that following N13.121 trillion recorded as at August 16, 2019, investors gained a whopping sum of N403 billion in five trading sessions – something they had barely seen in two months while the ASI closed 3.3 per cent – the largest advancement since May 24, 2019.
Analysts were quick to note that the recent inauguration of the new cabinet was key to changing the minds of investors playing in the capital market.
Chief Operating Officer at InvestData Consulting Limited, Ambrose Omordion congratulated the ministers, noting that the assigning of portfolios and the expected policies from fiscal and monetary authorities would trigger the much needed economic growth and development.
“With governance kicking off with the ministers being assigned portfolios, it is expected that the management of economic information and pronouncements would address investors’ concerns about the safety of their capital and returns on investment.
“It is very important that there is effective coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities, if the economy will make any headway going forward”, he said.
On his part, Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives, Bismarck Rewane, said that the new ministers have their work cut out for them, adding that Nigerians want to see deliverables rather than broken promises.
However, Cordros Capital, in a weekly note said: “Our view continues to favour cautious trading owing to the fact the gains recorded this week were not broad-based. However, compelling valuations support recovery in the medium to long term”.
At the sound of the closing gong on Friday, 24 stocks appreciated in value while 11 others depreciated. May and Baker topped the gainers’ chart with 9.95 per cent to close at N2.10 per share, Cutix followed with 9.93 per cent to close at N1.55, Unilever rose by 9.07 per cent to close at N29.45, Cileasing increased by 8.96 per cent to close at N7.30 while Chams garnered 8.33 per cent to close at 0.26 kobo.
On the flipside, Tripple G topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.63 kobo per share. Chip Plc was next with 9.68 per cent to close at 0.28 kobo, Unity Bank lost 8.70 per cent to close at 0.63 kobo, Linkage Assurance dropped 7.69 per cent to close at 0.48 kobo while Continsure decreased by 7.14 per cent to close at N1.30.
Sovereign Insurance was top on the activity chart with the sale of 900 million shares valued at N216.001 million. FBN Holdings traded about 80.11 million shares worth N401.07 million while Courtville transacted 55.06 million shares valued at N12.111 million.
Overall, the volume and value of stocks traded stood at 1.23 billion units and N3.29 billion respectively, in 3,644 deals.