Stock market records marginal gain

The Nigerian stock market last week recorded a marginal gain fueled by MTN Nigeria Plc and other banking stocks.
This is coming as investors continued to reposition their portfolios based on the assessment of some companies’ half-year 2023, H1’23, earnings reports.
Precisely, the Nigeria Exchange Limited, NGX, All-Share Index, ASI, recorded a 0.2% gain to close at 65,325.37 points from 65,198.08 points the previous week.
Another stock market gauge, NGX market capitalization, rose by N93 billion to close at N35.572 trillion from N35.479 trillion the previous week.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date, MtD, and Year-to-Date, YtD, returns were slightly higher at +1.5% and +27.5%, respectively.
Elsewhere, weak activity levels persisted on the bourse, as the trading volume and value decreased by 32.4% Week-on-Week, WoW, and 15.3% WoW, respectively.
From a sectoral viewpoint, the Banking Index went up by 1.3% and Insurance Index, by 0.7% while the Consumer Goods Index down by 0.9%, the Industrial Goods Index by 0.4% and Oil and Gas Index by 0.3%.
Reacting to the market performance and outlook, analysts at Cordros Research stated: “We expect market performance to remain mixed in the week ahead as investors rebalance their portfolios based on an assessment of corporate earnings released thus far for H1’23."
‘‘Nevertheless, we expect earnings from the Tier-1 banks in the coming week(s) to spur positive market sentiments, especially given the anticipation of interim dividends."
‘‘Overall, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
In their comment, analysts at Investdata Consulting said: “We expect mixed sentiments on bargain hunting, amid expected positive news, while investors digest corporate earnings ahead of July inflation data and First-tier banks earnings reports."
‘‘However, pullbacks are creating buying opportunities amidst economic reforms of the government, just as more policy pronouncements and economic managers hit the ground running, a situation expected to offer investment direction eventually."
‘‘Also, more Q2 earnings reports are expected to confirm the real state of the company's performance and attract liquidity amid markdown dates and the release of remaining audited accounts."
‘‘We note that discerning investors have continued to target fundamentally sound companies and defensive stocks to protect their portfolios.”