By Nkiruka Nnorom   

The stock market last week staged a comeback from  the rout of the previous week as investors reacted positively to MTN Nigeria’s Payment Service Bank (PSB) licence approval amid bargain hunting across stocks with attractive entry prices.

Consequently, the domestic bourse traded positively in all sessions with investors gaining N5 billion in the holiday shortened week.  

Precisely, the market capitalisation of all listed equities appreciated to N25.639 trillion from N25.139 trillion,  representing 1.99 per cent increase.  

Similarly, the All Share Index (ASI) rose by 1.99 per cent  to 47,510.38 points from 46,631.46 points in the previous week. Notably, bargain hunting in Nigerian Breweries Plc (+11.8%), Zenith Bank Plc (+8.7%), GTCO (+6.5%), Okomu Oil Palm Plc (+5.6%), MTN Communication Nigeria Plc  (+3.4%) and Dangote Cement Plc (+2.4%) spurred the weekly gain.  

Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD) return increased to 1.2 per cent and 11.2 per cent, respectively.  

Activity levels were upbeat, as trading volume and value rose by 10.9 per cent and 109.2 per cent respectively during the week.  

Sectoral performance was broadly positive following gains in the banking (+5.6%), consumer goods (+1.9%), industrial goods (+1.6%), oil and gas (+1.6%) and the insurance (+1.1%) sectors.

In their projections for the week, analysts at Cordros Capital, said: “In the near term, we expect the bulls to retain dominance given the positioning for the Q1’22 earnings announcements, even as institutional investors continue to search for clues on the direction of yields in the fixed income market.”

Vanguard News Nigeria