Investment experts at Bancorp Securities Limited, one of Nigeria’s stockbroking entities, on Monday predicted that investors would be cautious but selective in their investment in shares this week following the profit-taking activities that dominated the trading sessions in the bourse last week.
The experts, in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation May 25th – May 29th 2026’ shared with our correspondent, noted that though the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Monetary Policy Committee retained the monetary policy rate (MPR) and others at its 305th meeting concluded last Wednesday, pointed out that weaker market breadth and slower trading activity at the close of trading on the Exchange last Friday suggested that investors were becoming increasingly selective after the strong rally recorded in recent weeks.
According to the analysts, despite the seeming unimpressive outlook of the equities market, Banking and some Oil and Gas stocks could be relatively resilient this week amid persistent profit-taking by investors.
The firm’s researchers predicted: “We expect the equities market to remain cautious but selective this week following the broad profit-taking activities recorded last week. Although the MPC’s hold decision remains broadly supportive for sentiment, weaker market breadth and slower trading activity suggest that investors are becoming increasingly selective after the strong rally recorded in recent weeks.
- Advertisement -
“Banking and selected Oil & Gas counters are likely to remain relatively resilient, supported by earnings strength and elevated crude oil prices. However, intermittent profit-taking may persist across highly appreciated Consumer Goods, Industrial Goods, and Insurance companies as investors continue to rebalance positions”, they added.
The investment experts recalled that last week, the Nigerian equities market reversed part of the previous week’s gains as profit-taking activities resurfaced across several highly appreciated counters, despite the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to retain the MPR at 26.5%, which was largely in line with market expectations.
They noted that while the firm previously expected the market to maintain a positive but increasingly selective tone supported by improving macro sentiment and the anticipated MPC hold decision, investors adopted a more cautious approach during the week, with profit-taking pressures outweighing the supportive impact of the hold outcome and recent external sector improvements.
Consequently, the analysts reported that the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) declined marginally by 0.25% week-on-week to close at 249,712.37 points, while market capitalisation fell by 0.23% to NGN160.08 trillion.
Despite the dip in market cap, the researched maintained the mild decline suggested that broader market sentiment remained relatively resilient amid the pullback, particularly as the market continues to consolidate after the strong rally recorded in recent weeks.
As expected, they noted that market activity also significantly weakened during the week, with total trading volume declining sharply by 50.14% to 3.87 billion units from 7.77 billion units recorded in the previous week, while transaction value fell by 56.75% to N161.76 billion across 334,745 deals
