Equities Yield N21BN Gain to Start June

Trading on the floor of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed on a positive note on Thursday to commence the new month of June in green with N21 billion profit added to the wallets of investors at the end of the trading session.

The session marked the fourth bullish consecutive close of the local bourse, despite the low activity levels seen in the last two sessions where turnovers tumbled significantly.

Specifically, the valuation of equity investment on the NGX advanced by 0.07% representing N21 billion gain to close at N30.388 trillion from N30.367 trillion it closed the previous session.

Appreciating with the same percentage points, the All-Share Index (ASI), which tracks share price movements in the market, added 38.97 points to close the day at 55,808.25 basis points from 55,769.28 points the previous session.

The positive momentum was spurred by bargain hunting in ZENITHBANK (+1.7%), GEREGU (+1.6%), OKOMUOIL (+5.9%) and GTCO (+1.05%). The bull force outweighed losses in MTN Nigeria (-0.44%). ACCESSCORP (-0.81%) and FBNH (-2.78%).  Thus, the Year-to-Date returns of the NGX rose to +8.9%.

Tumbling Turnover

When Nigeria’s new leader, President Bola Tinubu assumed office on Tuesday, investors cheered to his proposed policy directions and the excitement led to high activity levels at the NGX with 1.08 billion traded share units, valued atN15.80 billion.

However, the excitement waned on Wednesday as market turnover dipped by 38.7% to 661.51 million units, albeit with increased valued N19.00 billion.

Despite the positive outlook on Thursday, volume and value traded further shrank by 41% and 70% to 390.22 shares valued at N5.727 billion respectively.

June Outlook

In a note released on Thursday, analysts at Investdata Consulting Limited envisaged a dicey outlook in June, and by extension in July.

During the period, the market will see release of more quarterly and full year earnings with expectation that earnings from blue-chip companies may strengthen market fundamentals in June.

They further hinted the investing community to look forward to continuation of oscillating trend in equity prices due to portfolio repositioning along the line of positive numbers and profit taking.

The said: “Also, the second half of this year will likely be dominated by positive sentiment on strength of government policy direction.

“Market outlook for June is mixed but remains dicey, after the index defied the “sell in May and come back in October,” which may not be applicable in the current trend of our market that has changed in the last five years.

“In the Nigerian market, the month of June has been down in the current years. But with the impressive Q1 numbers so far; the oil price oscillating above $70 per barrel in the global market remain a plus for the market.

“The sustained low valuation in the market may trigger high demand for stocks as players realign their portfolios.

“However, there is need to invest wisely, using bids, offers and volume when taking decisions as a trader.”

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