Investment analysts at Bancorp Securities Limited, a leading investment research and advisory services providing company in Nigeria, on Monday predicted that trading sessions in the Nigerian Exchange would stabilize, with declining prices in financial services stocks offering higher dividend yields.
The experts, in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation Apr 15 to Apr 19, 2024’ sourced by our correspondent, maintained that the trading trend in the local bourse could positively impact related sectors like insurance and consumer goods, which are closely tied to financial activities.
They, however, expressed concern that significant directional news throughout the week could sway market sentiment.
The researchers noted that the escalating conflict in the Middle East was embedded with the duality principle for Nigeria.
Specifically, the experts pointed out that while the conflict could raise international crude oil prices, benefiting the country’s foreign exchange liquidity and leading to Naira appreciation, it also held the potential of triggering inflationary pressures in the nation due to increased fuel and transportation costs, eroding consumer purchasing power.
The analysts recalled that despite the positive effect on oil prices, Nigeria continued to face declining trend in oil production, as highlighted in the April 2024 OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report, which showed that the country experienced its second consecutive monthly decrease in production, daily average crude oil production dropping by 91.02K barrels per day (bpd) to hit 1.23 million bpd.
Meanwhile, they noted that Libya and Algeria had seen improvements in their production levels with the former’s production recording a significant increase of 63.01K bpd in March, reaching 1.24 million bpd while Algeria also recorded an improved daily average output of 907.00K bpd in March 2024.
