Stock market closes February in green, gain N2.48trn in two months

Nigeria’s stock market surprisingly closed the last trading day of the month in the green as investors continued to defy the weak macroeconomic environment.Information Guide Nigeria

Despite uncertainties building up to the 2023 elections, analysts had predicted that the market would not be affected by the tension during the trading month. However, a look at the year 2015 and 2016 saw the market badly affected by the heated polity.

According to the market’s performance analysis by the Daily Sun, All Share Index (ASI), which is the average value of share prices of all companies, closed February at 535,806.26 points from an opening figure of 53,238.67 points.

SUN NEWS reports that, NGX’s market capitalization, which opened at N28.997 trillion, increased by N1.40 trillion to close the month under review at N30.400 trillion.

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Recall that market capitalization had gained about N1.08 trillion in the previous month, this means that investors have now gained N2.48 trillion in January and February 2023 respectively.

According to SUN NEWS, at the close of trading yesterday, the year-to-date (ytd) return rose to 8.89 per cent as gains in Dangote Cement- who had an impressive outing in 2022, Zenith Bank and GTCO drove the market 0.86 per cent higher.NYSC portal

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 184.78 per cent. A total of 237.17 million shares valued at N4.39 billion were exchanged in 4,435 deals.

Reacting to the performance of the market, Head of Finance and Investment Research at Meristem Securities, Abdulateef Grillo said, “The market was very positive and it is surprising because there are uncertainties that come up before elections. It did not affect market sentiments at all and this was due to investors rebalancing their portfolios and strong buying interest from investors as well as corporate earnings.

Although the market has remained on the positive side for the early start of the year. We still feel that equities could kick-start the month of March in a cautious way and we also feel that cash will be king for investors. However, we still have good corporate 2022 results coming in and so the market might trade sideways this month”.

In addition, analysts at Cordros Research, said, “We believe investors will be focused on the outcome of the highly anticipated 2023 Presidential elections. Thus, we see more of a “choppy theme” as cautious trading dominates the trading activities. Overall, we advise investors to seek trading opportunities in only fundamentally sound stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”.JAMB Result

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