Investment and economic research experts at Bancorp Securities Limited, one of Nigeria’s investment research and consulting firms, have projected that trading in the nation’s equities market will be characterized by mixed sentiment this week amid profit-taking by investors.
The analysts, in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendations: Mar 06 – Mar 10 2023’ sourced by our correspondent linked their forecast to the lingering profit-sharing trend in the investment market over the past weeks as many listed entities continue to report on their financial statements in 2022.
The experts predicted: “We expect mixed sentiment in the Equities Market as a result of profit-taking”
On the stocks with positive outlook and recommended as strong buy for investors, the firm’s experts listed LAFARGE (WAPCO), NESTLE, and NIGERIAN BREWERIES as holding good prospect for return on investments.
For instance, the researchers partly hinged their recommendations on NIGERIAN BREWERIES as a strong buy on the financial statements of the company, adding that “going forward, we believe that the company’s brand and footprint will continue to capture the expected growth and market share in Nigeria”
Similarly, they strongly projected that LAFARGE (WAPCO) would add value to investor’s fund based on the company’s financial performance in 2022 and “according to the management in 2023, Lafarge Africa expects good demand momentum and it plans to continue to maximize volume opportunities across its markets and actively manage its costs.”
Meanwhile, the investment experts noted that the equities market began the month of March on a positive note following the release of more full-year results with dividend announcements, which raised the NGX-ASI upward by 1.06% week on week to 55,529.21 points while the market capitalization rose 1.06% w/w to N30.25 trillion to give investors N315.96 billion in profits while the year-to-date return rose further to 8.35%.
They attributed the positive performance partly by price appreciation in stocks such as GEREGU (+27%), CILEASING (+21%), MCNICHOLS (+19.7%), STANBIC (+19%), OANDO (+14%), and DANGOTE SUGAR PLC (+12%).
Also, they observed that the market activity was mixed as total volume advanced by 138.75% w/w to 1.91 billion while total value traded dipped by 37.14% w/w to N18.45 billion even as across the sectors, performance was largely upbeat as most sectors witnessed decent patronage, except the Oil & Gas index which closed southwards (-2.36%).
