Investment experts at Bancorp Securities Limited, a leading investment research and consulting firm in Nigeria, have predicted that trading sessions in the Nigerian Exchange this week would maintain some bullish momentum in view of the current micro and macroeconomic indices of the economy.
In the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation for Jan 22 – Jan 26, 2024’ published on Monday, the experts hinged their predictions on the market’s performance on recent performances of some blue chip stocks, especially in the banking and industrial sectors.
Specifically, the analysts projected: “In this current week, we expect the Nigerian bourse to remain positive, on the back of an unrelenting bullish momentum. We expect the banking sub sector to garner positive investor interests as we approach pivotal banking sector reforms under the auspices of the CBN.
“Profit taking activities to define activities in the consumer goods sector, amidst intensified portfolio rebalancing activities. The upward momentum on the industrial goods sector is expected to reduce, as investors realize capital gains, save for stronger fundamentals”, they added.
The researchers recalled that December 2023 inflation stood at 28.92%, a slower upward trajectory compared to the observable growth rates and reiterated the reasons behind the declining rate of inflation growth in the previous outlook section, as, it bordered around the gains from reducing the FX backlogs, and the positive impact of higher NTB yields on mopping up excess liquidity in the period.
This is even as they noted that the December Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price watch report, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that the average price of PMS, across the country was NGN671.86 representing a 353 basis points increase from November 2023.
On zonal profile, the Bancorp Securities’ experts reported that prices in the North central returned the lowest average at NGN657.69 trailed by the South west region at NGN659.14, wherein Lagos printed at NGN612.72.
According to them, the overwhelming impact of subsidy removal continues to take a toll on the inflationary tendencies in the country.
The experts maintained that in the long anticipated Monetary Policy Meeting (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the above factors would be conspicuous considerations, as they anticipated how the blend of inflation targeting would ameliorate this negative trend.
