As investors and business owners’ anxieties continue to mount on the best investment decisions to opt for this week, investment researchers at Bancorp Securities Limited on Monday predicted that with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for this week, they expected investors to trade cautiously ahead of the policy decision.
The experts, in the firm’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendation 23rd-27th February 2026’ circulated to our correspondent on Monday, hinged their forecast partly on the prevailing micro and mcroeconomic indices.
The analysts predicted: “Our base case remains a hold, as maintaining rates would support macro stability. However, if the Committee opts for a rate cut, we could see a short-term positive reaction in equities driven by improved liquidity expectations.
“Overall, while volatility may increase around the announcement, we expect the broader market to remain resilient and close the week on a positive note, barring any significant policy surprise”, they added
- Advertisement -
The firm’s researchers recalled that as expected, the Nigerian equities market sustained its upward trend for the third consecutive week last week, driven by rallies across the major sector indices within our coverage.
Data from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) on the market’s performance reflected that the NGX All-Share Index (NGX-ASI) advanced by 6.95% week-on-week to close at 194,989.77 points, lifting the year-to-date return to 25.30%, with the market capitalization gained approximately N8.13 trillion during the week under review, settling at N125.16 trillion.
Similarly, trading metrics indicated that a total volume and value traded increased by 64.73% and 30.64%, respectively just as total of 7.66 billion units valued at N252.56 billion were exchanged across 345,118 deals.
During the week, activity was largely driven by strong participation in FCMB, ACCESSCORP, and ZENITHBANK, which dominated volume traded during the week. Market Breadth and Sentiment: Market breadth remained positive, with 71 equities advancing against 41 decliners, while 36 stocks closed unchanged.
The Bancorp Securities’ investment experts noted that although the number of gainers moderated compared to the previous week, the positive advance decline spread still reflected healthy participation and indicates that the rally was relatively broad-based rather than concentrated in a few large-cap names.
