Experts foresee sustained stock market bullish trend this week
On Monday, the 24th of July, some financial experts stated that the current economic indices would sustain the Nigerian stock market’s optimistic trend this week. The experts made the declaration when they spoke with Newsmen in Lagos.
The Head of Banking and Finance Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Dr Uche Uwaleke, said that investors’ reaction to the half year financial results by some listed companies had been good.
Also, Uwaleke said that the expectation of the benchmark interest rate retention at 14 per cent by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on July 25 would aid the capital market’s growth.
He further added that the lower inflation figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) depicting weakening inflationary pressure would equally contribute to the bullish trend. He also said that the improved liquidity in the foreign exchange market on the back of CBN’s importer-exporter’s window had continued to attract foreign investors.
The Head of Research, SCM Capital Ltd., Lagos, Mr Sewa Wusu, attributed the market’s sustained positive momentum to investors’ repositioning in anticipation of the declaration of interim dividends by major banks. Wusu stated that the market would likely sustain the current upward trend following investors’ expectation of impressive 2017 half year earnings by more quoted companies. He said that the market might likely witness some slight profit-taking this week.
Furthermore, Wusu said that the overall economic outlook suggested that the market may still continue on the upbeat in the interim.
It can be recalled that, a total turnover of 3.63 billion shares worth N34.89 billion were traded by investors in 19,834 deals last week. This is against a turnover of 1.27 billion shares valued at N13.99 billion exchanged by investors in 19,385 deals in the previous week.
