Nigerian Stock Market Gains N885bn Last Week

• Nigerian Stock Market Gains N885bn Last Week

The Nigerian Stock Exchange gained N885bn last week following MTN Nigeria successfully listing.

The market capitalisation of listed equities rose to N13.601 trillion, while All-Share Index gained 6.96 percent to 30,881.29 basis points.

A total of 1.698 billion shares valued at N57.895 billion were transacted in 24,328 deals by investors last week. This was higher than the 1.172 billion shares worth N17.887 billion traded in the previous week.

The financial services sector led activity chart with 1.121 billion shares valued at N8.708 billion in 13,380 deals.

This was followed by the Information and Communications Technology Industry with 324,332 million shares worth N40.717 billion in 3,330 deals.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said: “The equities market has recently received a boost from the listing of MTN, but investor sentiment remains weak. We believe the lack of reforms and broad economic weakness continue to be drawbacks to an upturn in performance despite cheap valuation relative to emerging and frontier market peers.

“Following a bullish performance this (last) week, we expect sell pressures next (this) week as investors look to take profits on stocks that have recorded strong gains.”

Experts at Cordros Capital Limited said the 28.6 percent and 13.6 percent surged in the value of MTN Nigeria and Dangote Cement drove the market to its highest weekly gain in over a year.

“Clearly, the gain was not broad-based, at such we reiterate our cautious trading pattern. Meanwhile, we believe that the blend of positive macroeconomic fundamentals and compelling valuations still supports a near-term recovery,” they added.