Nigerian Stock Exchange Rises to N14trn on Rising Optimism

The Nigerian Stock Exchange rose to N14.039 on Wednesday to sustain its bullish trend since the Central Bank of Nigeria lowered the interest rate by 100 basis points to 11.5 percent.

On Wednesday before Thursday’s independence day holiday, the market capitalisation of listed stocks rose by N116.7 billion to close at N14.039 trillion while the NSE All-Share Index expanded to 26,831.76 percent.

On Friday morning, the NSE All-Share Index gained 0.34 percent to 26,923.15 basis points as investors remained optimistic with the recent adjustment in the nation’s economic policy.

While macro fundamentals remained generally weak, stock traders are looking to take advantage of low stock valuations and the expected surge in economic productivity due to the lower interest rate to up their stock portfolio in the near-term.

Analysts at Cordros Research said “We expect the market might continue to benefit as domestic investors seek alpha-yielding opportunities in the face of increasingly negative real returns in the fixed income market. However, we advise investors to trade in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for listed companies.”