Bancorp Securities Limited’s investment analysts on Monday stated that they expected to see continued mixed trading this week amid slight bargain hunting activities across major sectors of the equities market.
The analysts in the company’s ‘Weekly Stock Recommendations: Aug 08- Aug 12’ report recommended five blue chip stocks to investors as strong buy based on the listed companies recent financial and other performance indices scorecards.
The recommended stocks for strong buy include WAPCO (Lafarge Africa Plc), MTNN (MTN Nigeria Plc), GTCO (Guaranty Trust Bank Plc), ZENITH (Zenith Bank Plc), and UBA (United Bank for Africa Plc).
They projected: “We expect to see continued mixed trading this week amid slight bargain hunting activities across major sectors.”
On the performance of the equities market last week, the analysts noted that at the end of the trading sessions, the market’s All Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.70% w/w amid mixed sentiment to close at 50,772.33 points; the YTD moderated to 18.74% while market capitalisation gained N195.4 billion w/w to N27.4 trillion.
They noted further that despite the drawback seen from some selected large-capitalized stock in the previous week, market sentiments remained largely positive as gainers outnumbered losers in the five trading days.
The analysts further stated: “However, activity level was down as volume and value traded decreased by 53.90% and 21.07% w/w respectively to 705.6mn units and N12.85bn. Trading in the top three equities were Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc accounting for 173.853 million shares worth N3.073 billion to the total volume and value respectively.
“On sectoral performance, major indices finished higher with NGX Consumer goods gaining 3% w/w on the back of price appreciation in HONYFLOUR, PZ and CHAMPION, followed by Banking index which increased by 2.63% w/w due to price uptick in ZENITH, GTCO and JAIZBANK. The NGX Oil and Gas index also gained w/w by 0.60% driven by price increase in ETERNA and JAPAULGOLD.
“Conversely, The industrial index led the laggards with a loss of 5.76% w/w due to price decline in BUACEMENT, followed by the Insurance index which dipped by 0.37% w/w due to decrease in price of WAPIC, LINKASSURE and CORNERST”, they added.
