The equities section of the Nigerian capital market has a high possibility of closing on a positive note at the end of the year, capital market analysts have said.
The analysts based their prediction on the fact that there had been increased interest and participation from both local and foreign players.
This, they noted, was owing to the gradual rise in the prices of stocks, as the market had begun to find its feet this year, after the crash of 2008 and the banking exercise of 2009.
Trading activities on the Nigerian bourse have sustained swings of marginal ups and down since the market attained a peak return of 32.03 per cent in October, 2012. However, by the end of activities this week, the Year-to-Date returns stood at 28.66 per cent.
The NSE All-Share Index lost 43 basis points on the first trading day of the week, which was reversed to begin sustaining a positive trend for the remaining days in the week. The Index made a gain of 0.67 per cent in the week, compared with 0.20 per cent recorded the previous week.
Analysts from Meristem Nigeria Limited, in their report on Monday, said, “We highlight the current market resilience in which despite the low activities, in terms of volume, on the exchange, the market return has sustained above 26 per cent Year-to-Date return for the past 46 days.
“We ascribe this to a return of normal, but slow, market activities on the bourse, as profit taking and investor scepticism slows. Therefore, we expect the market to remain stable for the remaining trading days of the year, with the benchmark index closing 2012 on a positive note.
From a sectoral perspective, the banking sub-sector turned in 2.44 per cent, the Insurance sector gained 4.7 per cent, and Food & Beverage sector rose by 2.26 per cent, while the oil and gas sector lost 2.11 per cent.
On their part, analysts from Vetiva Capital Markets Limited said that even though activities opened last week on a low note, it quickly rallied in the next four sessions to close on renewed interest in the consumer goods basket and top-tier financial names.
“On the domestic scene, we expect to see softer gains in the NSE 30 buoyed by Consumer Goods heavyweights and top-tier financials. Overall, we expect NSE index to be in greens though with still muted activity levels,†the report noted.
Source: Punch (written by Udeme Ekwere)
