By Nkiruka Nnorom

STOCKBROKERS in the nation’s capital market and other investment analysts have said that the market will sustain its positive momentum this week riding on the back of more earning reports expected to be released by listed firms.

The equities market closed in the positive territory last week with investors gaining N105 billion as the market capitalisation rose toN15.508 trillion from N15.403 trillion in the previous week. Similarly, the All Share Index, ASI, advanced by 0.68 percent to 43,167.86 basis points from 42,876.23 points following reaction to corporate results released within the week.

According to analysts at Cordros Capital, an investment banking firm, the outlook for the week remained positive as investors’ sentiment remained buoyed by optimism around positive macroeconomic fundamentals and expected positive quarter four, Q4 2017 corporate releases.

Corroborating, Mr. Chinyere Anyanwu, Managing Director/CEO, Dependable Securities, said that having enjoyed a week of favourable investors’ disposition, the market would remain upbeat “as more companies results are expected to be released this week.”

He said: “Expectation is upbeat by us, reason being that we are in the season of result, even though some of the very good results that already came out did not give the exact impact we expected.

“Some of the results we saw that we expected would boost the market did not give the required impact. We observed also that some of the stocks had moved up before the declaration of the results. People took position in anticipation of good results having seen the first, second and third quarter results. What you cannot speculate is what a particular company will pay as dividend, but the results are already known. So, next week, we expect that more companies will release their results and that will drive the market up.”

Also, Mr. Dolapo Ashiru, CEO, Mega Capital Financial Services, said that the market is expected to go up because of corporate actions. “Today, we saw the result of NASCON Allied Industries Plc and it was okay. The company declared a dividend of N1.50. So, by next week, we expect more results to come out but it is the banks’ results that will really drive the market, especially the tier one banks.

Like Anyanwu, Ashiru said that the results so far released did not have much impact because most investors had already taken position well ahead of the release of those results.

Meanwhile, a breakdown of the last week’s transactions showed that among sectors, the oil and gas sector recorded the highest gain, rising by 5.58 percent, followed by the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors, which rose by 1.70 percent apiece on the back of gains in Unilever Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and First Aluminium Nigeria Plc.

However, the banking and insurance sectors fell by 0.25 percent and 1.76 percent respectively.

At the end of the week, investors bought 3.079 billion shares worth N39.990 billion in 23,086 deals compared to 2.170 billion shares valued at N39.087 billion that exchanged hands last week in 24,657 deals.

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