Following three consecutive weeks of positive performance of the Nigerian equities market, investment experts at Bancorp Securities Limited, a leading investment research and consulting services firm in the country, projected that this week they expected investors to remain cautiously optimistic, as the market anticipates the release of financial results from Tier-1 banks (with the exception of FIRSTHOLDCO), which may keep positioning selective.
The investment researchers in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation 23rd-27th March 2026’ circulated to our correspondent on Monday, pointed out that while profit-taking in bellwether stocks could persist at the start of the week, underlying market resilience, supported by positive breadth, was expected to limit downside risk.
Similarly, they anticipated that institutional positioning ahead of earnings releases and dividend declarations, particularly within the banking and oil and gas sectors, would continue to provide support for market activity, with flows likely to remain concentrated in fundamentally strong names
The analysts further clarified: “Overall, the market is expected to trade within a narrow range, with a slight upward bias, as investors favour high-quality, dividend-paying large-cap stocks, while rotating across sectors in response to emerging develpoments.”
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They recalled that last week, after days of positive momentum, the equities market recorded a marginal decline, as profit-taking pressure in bellwether stocks offset continued underlying buy-side interest.
According to the data on the week’s trading sessions, the NGX All Share Index (NGX-ASI) declined by 0.12% week-on-week to close at 200,913.06 points, while market capitalisation decreased by 0.12% to N128.97 trillion, reflecting a loss of approximately N160.0 billion over the week.
Similarly, the market activity weakened significantly compared to the previous week, with total volume traded declining by 54.91% to 3.95 billion shares, while total transaction value fell by 24.67% to N201.31 billion.
However, the firm’s analysts noted that the total number of deals increased sharply by 85.89%.
The experts recalled: “Technically, market internals moderated from the previous week’s strong levels, with the advance-decline (UD) ratio settling at 1.18, compared to 6.50 recorded in the prior week, indicating that while gainers still outpaced decliners, the breadth of the rally narrowed significantly.
“In addition, the weekly TRIN closed at 0.99, up from 0.16 in the previous week, reflecting a shift from strong accumulation to a more balanced market environment. The combination of a lower UD ratio and a higher TRIN suggests that the market has transitioned from an aggressive bullish phase into a consolidation phase, with investors adopting a more selective approach.
The analysts observed that the market breadth improved slightly to 1.17x from 1.06x recorded in the previous week, with 49 gainers and 42 decliners, reinforcing the view that positive sentiment remained broadly distributed despite the overall negative close.
