Investment analysts at Bancorp Securities Limited, one of Nigeria’s economic research and investment consulting firms, have projected that trading in the nation’s equities market will be mixed this week as more actions of listed corporate entities will dominate the trading sessions.
For instance, the experts hinged the firm’s forecast about the mixed sentiment partly on reinvestment of dividend payment of Zenith Bank even as the expected H1’22 results of ACCESSCORP may likely spur investors’ sentiment.
The investment experts stated: “We expect mixed sentiment this week due to released corporate actions and reinvestment of dividend payment of Zenith bank. Also, the expected H1’22 results of ACCESSCORP may likely drive investors’ sentiment.”
Despite the projected mixed sentiment characterizing the bourse’s sessions, the analysts in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendations: Sept. 12 – Sept. 17 2022’ sourced by our correspondent on Monday, still rated some stocks as strong buy to investors based on the listed companies’ recent positive performance scorecards.
The recommended stocks are WAPCO (Lafarge Africa Plc), MTNN (MTN Nigeria Plc), ZENITH (Zenith Bank Plc), GTCO (Guaranty Trust Bank Plc), and UBA (United Bank for Africa Plc).
For instance, on ZENITH, the firm stated: “We maintain a Buy recommendation on the stock with a target price target of N30.00 on the back of the decent H1 2022 results: stable asset quality; capital adequacy (CAR 21.0% ) and sustainable long-term dividend policy.”
Meanwhile, the analysts noted that the equities market closed trading activities for previous week on a negative note amid profit taking witnessed in some high capitalized stocks. Particularly, ZENITHBANK (-5.3%), STANBIC (-4.6%), AIRTELAFRI (-2.0%), and FBNH (-1.4%) which drove the weekly loss.
Accordingly, the All-Share index dipped by 0.7% w/w to close at 49,695.12 points while the Year-To-Date (YTD) return moderated to 16.3% (previously: 17.1%) while market capitalisation shed N188.9bn w/w to N26.8tn.
Similarly, trading activities faltered as total volume and value traded fell 20.5% and 27.9% w/w respectively to 949.8m units and N9.3bn.
On sectoral performance, major indices finished lower with the exception of Insurance and Consumer Goods indices which increased by 1.0% and 0.7% w/w respectively on the back of price appreciation in NEM (+11.9%), SOVRENINS (+3.7%), PZ (+12.8%), and UNILEVER (+9.4%).
Conversely, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices lost 0.6% and 0.11% w/w sequentially due to decline in the price of ZENITH, and UNITYBNK and OANDO. Likewise, sell pressure on WAPCO drove the Industrial Goods index lower by 0.01% w/w respectively.
