Nigerian equities have opened the year strong for the second week, driving high returns

For the second consecutive week, the Nigerian stock market began on a positive note, as investors continued to take advantage of the market’s strong performance to trade more stocks. The All Share Index, a metric that tracks the movement of share prices on an exchange, hit a 7-month high of 83,191.84 at the end of Tuesday’s trading. 

The NGX grew by nearly 4% today, driving the banking stocks of some tier-1 banks like First Bank Holdings into a trillion naira market capitalisation. Other stocks in the manufacturing, agriculture and insurance sectors also drove today’s strong results. 

“The market is expected to remain bullish in the short run,” said Samuel Oyekanmi, a Lagos-based financial analyst. With the market’s positive results, it resumed where it dropped off in 2023. 

Yet, other analysts warned that the bullish trend of the stock exchange will not last forever, predicting a possible dip later this month.  “Investors may begin to take profit towards the later part of the month,” Oyekanmi warned. Another analyst, Mayowa Badejo told TechCabal that the current strong performance could be a move to attract more people into the market and take profits later on. “It’s also possible that some traders are intentionally driving the prices up to attract newbies in the hope of dumping after the bandwagon effect,” he added.