Bancorp Securities Limited, one of Nigeria’s investment research firms, on Monday predicted that mixed reactions that characterized trading sessions in the nation’s equities market last week will be sustained this week.
This is even as the firm expected investors to take position in half-year results which are to be released in the course of this month.
Bancorp Securities’ experts, who made these predictions in the firm’s latest Weekly Stock Recommendations: Jul 4th – Jul 8th, 2022, also recommended five blue chip stocks as strong buys for investors this week. The stocks include, GTCO, ZENITH, UBA, WAPCO and MTNN.
According to the investment analysts, GTCO is considered a strong buy in view of the company’s recent financial and other assessment indices criteria in recent months.
They stated: “We anticipate that the acquisition of non-bank companies will boost shareholder value by exploiting cross-selling opportunities in its banking sector, and we anticipate that half-year results will reflect this.”
The experts hinged their recommendations on ZENITH stock on the fact that Q1’22 performance indicated operating performance resiliency with noticeable strong growth in interest and noninterest income sources fueled rise in gross earnings and profits, adding that “we expect loan growth to boost interest revenue while non-interest income remains.”
The firm recalled that transactions in the equities market last week closed positive amid mixed sentiment as the NGX-ASI increased by 0.24% to 51,829.67, indicating a YTD return of 21.33% just as the market capitalization grew by N66.9 billion to N27.941 trillion.
Also, the activity level was upswing as volume and value traded increased by 20.25% and 78.70% w/w respectively to 1.35bn units and N24.49bn. Trading in the top three equities namely Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Living Trust Mortgage Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc accounted for 484.839 million shares worth N 2.414 billion to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively
Overall, on a monthly basis, the equities market halt the positive performance recorded in previous months as market closed the month of June on a negative note. The benchmark index fell 2.2% m/m (May: +6.75% m/m) to 51,817.59 points, while market capitalization shed N632bn to N27.94tn.
Consequently, YTD return moderated to 21.3%. Meanwhile, total value and volume traded in June grossed 5.96bn units and N78.4bn respectively.
