Pre-Santa Rally To Trigger Positive Trading On Stock Market

The Nigerian stock market is expected to witness pre-Santa rally amid strategic positioning ahead of the New Year this week, OLUSHOLA BELLO writes.

Analysts stated that the Nigerian equities market performance for this week is expected to be positive on pre-Santa rally amid strategic positioning ahead of the New year.

It could be seen by last week’s bullish performance, as banking stocks ushered in the Santa Claus rally, extending the positive outing for the eighth successive week on increased buying sentiments and strong momentum.
These pushed the benchmark NGX All-Share Index to a new all-time high, as it closed above the 72,000 psychological line in the face of ongoing seasonality, portfolio rebalancing and the prevailing disconnection of the market from the nation’s economic realities as revealed by the weak macroeconomic data and persistent headwinds in the system.

Analysts Optimism
Looking ahead to the new week, Cowry Assets Management Limited anticipated a continuation of positive sentiment and profit-taking, driven by bargain hunting for dividend-paying stocks.

Market players are expected to digest the recently published Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) report and its potential impact on the financial market, amidst sector rotation and portfolio rebalancing spurred by the high expectation for full-year corporate numbers and high yields.

“Amidst all these, we maintain our advice to investors on taking positions in stocks with sound fundamentals and whose earnings yield and earnings per share support higher payout ratio,” Cowry said.

Analysts at Cordros Securities Limited expected the market to remain mixed in the coming week as investors cherry-pick counters given the absence of any significant positive catalysts, saying, “nevertheless, we reiterate the need for investors to seek positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”

Afrinvest Limited said: ‘we anticipate the pre-santa rally to be sustained next week amid strategic positioning ahead of the new year.’

Last Week’s Trading Activities
The Nigerian equities market sustained its upward trajectory due to upbeat demand on the banking stocks last week.

Buoyed by this, the benchmark index closed northward by 1.18 per cent week on week (W-o-W) to close at 72,389.23 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation for the week increased by N464 billion to close at N39.613 trillion.

Across sector, weekly performance was largely positive. The NGX Banking index posted the biggest gain for the week, up 7.01 per cent. The NGX Industrial index followed with a weekly gain of 0.24 per cent, while NGX Consumer Goods index rose by 0.22 per cent W-o-W. On the flipside, the NGX Insurance index recorded a weekly decline of 0.96 per cent, while NGX Oil & Gas index dipped 0.27 per cent.

The market breadth for the week was positive as 53 equities appreciated in price, 32 equities depreciated in price, while 70 equities remained unchanged. Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank led the gainers table by 59.32 per cent to close at N2.82, per share. SCOA Nigeria followed with a gain of 28.89 per cent to close at N1.74, while DAAR Communications went up by 27.78 per cent to close to 46 kobo, per share.

On the other side, Secure Electronic Technology led the decliners table by 16.00 per cent to close at 63 kobo, per share. Eterna followed with a loss of 11.83 per cent to close at N11.55, while Thomas Wyatt Nigeria declined by 11.14 per cent to close at N2.95, per share.

Overall, a total turnover of 1.882 billion shares worth N31.630 billion in 33,020 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.423 billion shares valued at N45.070 billion that exchanged hands prior week in 34,704 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.373 billion shares valued at N22.165 billion traded in 17,300 deals; contributing 72.96 per cent and 70.08 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Services Industry followed with 97.008 million shares worth N616.265 million in 1,949 deals, while the Consumer Goods Industry traded a turnover of 86.370 million shares worth N2.136 billion in 3,819 deals.

Trading in the top three equities; Access Holdings, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company (GTCO) and Zenith Bank accounted for 491.533 million

shares worth N15.466 billion in 5,997 deals, contributing 26.12 per cent and 48.90 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.