Investment researchers and economists at Bancorp Securities Limited, a leading stock-brocking and investment consulting firm in Nigeria, have projected bargain hunting in the Nigerian Exchange this week, sustaining positive sentiment as investors continue to take advantage of declared dividends and earnings.
The analysts, in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation 2nd-4th April 2025’ Note circulated to our correspondent today anticipated that the banking sector rally should persist in the local bourse, while the oil and gas sector remains pressured by macroeconomic headwinds.
The firm’s researchers hinged their forecast primarily on the performance of the market over the past weeks and other macroeconomic factors, including the monetary policy stance of he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the inflationary trend in the economy.
For instance, they noted that following four consecutive weeks of decline, the Nigerian equities market rebounded, as the All-Share Index (NGX-ASI) appreciated by 0.66% to close at 105,660.64 points at the end of the trading session last Friday driven by the release of earnings and dividend declarations in the banking sector, among others.
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However, the experts clarified that month-to-date (MTD), the market’s performance for March declined by 2.00%, while the year-to-date (YTD) return stood at +2.66% as the market capitalization also appreciated by N437.49 billion, reaching N66.26 trillion.
According to them, positive sentiment dominated trading activity, with both total volume and value traded rising by 159.20% and 730.04%, respectively, to 7.52 billion units worth N398.95 billion across 61,312 deals.
On sectoral performance, the analysts reported that the Banking index was the best-performing sector for last week, rising by 5.61% WTD, adding that the gain is driven by share price appreciation in GTCO, FCMB, FIDELITYBK, among others.
The figures further reflected that Consumer Goods sector appreciated by 0.33% WTD, driven by gains in NNFM, CHAMPION, and NESTLE, among others just as the Industrial Goods Index appreciated marginally by 0.01% WTD.
A further analysis of the market’s sectoral performance indicated that Insurance sector index grew by 1.89% WTD, driven by buying interest in MBENEFIT, SUNUASSUR, and ROYALEX, among others, while the Oil and Gas Index was the lone loser for the week, declining by 1.65% WTD, driven by share price declines in ETERNA, OANDO, and ARADEL, among others.
