Ruth Ibikunle
The stock market last week closed on a bullish note, occasioned by growth in the share prices of Airtel, Dangote Cement and 61 other stocks.
Year to date, the market has returned 36.97% with the All Share Index and Market Capitalization at 70,196.77 points and N38.557 trillion respectively.
In a stock market review with the MD/CEO of APT Securities and Funds Limited, Mallam Garba Kurfi, the following were discussed:
Excerpts:
The stock market last week crossed the 70,000 points mark, returning 4.56% week on week. What is the outlook for the last quarter of the year?
The performances were mix up, the whole Financial Sector did very well but Manufacturing Sectors closed negatively due to FX losses recorded. Generally many of our listed companies were affected due to importation of raw materials which needed Fx.
Quite a number of results were released in the course of the week to beat the deadline for publishing of results on NGX. How would rate the performance of these companies so far?
The performance of our capital market is very good, hedged against inflation better than money market.
What is driving the growth in Mutual Benefit Assurance, Japaul Gold and Airtel and Cadbury?
Generally Insurance Companies are doing very well mutual benefits Assurance, Airtel & Seplat prices are rising due to devaluation of naira and dual exchanges listing.
What are the possibilities in FBNH, UBA, Zenith, Access, GTCO and Fidelity Bank?
The same goes for the Banking Sectors which benefits from the devaluation of naira due to merge of Exchange rates into single Exchange rates. Most of the Banks had double digit returns especially FBNH, UBA,ZENITH ACCESS, GTCO & FIDELITY BANKS which must double their prices within a year.
What are the stocks to watch?
The stocks to watch are GLAXOSMITH, UBA, ACCESS, ZENITH, GTCO, DANGOTE SUGAR, NASCON, UNIVERSAL INSURANCE, FLOUR among others.