The Nigerian stock market on Tuesday closed on a bearish note with a decline of 1.99%, bringing the All Share Index and Market Capitalisation to 60,715.04 points and N33.060 trillion respectively. Year to date, the market has returned 18.47%.
In a stock market review with the MD/CEO of Global View Capital Limited, Aruna Kebira, the following were discussed:
Excerpts:
• The market on Tuesday dropped significantly by 1.99%. What could be driving this?
The market has been celebrated everywhere for its performance within the first half of this year. Both at home and in the Diaspora.
The curve of the market is never straight, it oscillates. This is depending on the information, mood, and sentiments at the market arena. Most investors have made superlative returns in their positions.
The last month of the year’s first half ended last Friday, the 30th day of June 2023.
All activities both on the part of retail investors and portfolio managers saw that the market end the half of the year well.
Many investors took advantage of the continuous rise in prices to book and cash in some profits, which was exactly what happened on the floor yesterday.
But is that the end of the rally? to me, the answer is NO.
As the government continues to churn out market-friendly information, the market will continue to look up.
Why do I say so, if you look closely, most of the rally activities are pined majorly to the banking sector?
MTNN, Airtel Africa, Nestle, Seplat, and Dangote Cement are yet to have their fair share of the rally.
•Academy Press reported Profit after Tax of N17.69 million for the year ended 31 March 2023, down by 89.84% from N174 million reported the previous year. What could be the reason for this poor performance?
Academy Press grew its top line marginally and was able to manage its middle line. It has a better gross profit in 2023 than in 2022. That is N1.013 billion (2023) as against N880.775 million (2022).
Its finance cost increased by 28% to N136.703 million in 2023 from N106.518 million in 2022, while the income tax grew tremendously by 319% from N51.14m to N214.528 million.
•Why is LASACO trending down?
LASACO was marked down for a dividend of N0.15. Its closing price was N2.67 as of July 3, 2023, which incidentally was the qualification day.
And the price was marked down on the day investors decided to take profits, so profit-taking also affected the price.
It lost about 13% when compared to the close of yesterday against the close of the day before yesterday. The price was impacted by both the markdown effect and a further loss in profit taking.
•What is the best price to renter the following: Access, UBA, GTCO, Zenith, FBNH, WAPCO and Nigerian Breweries?
If the market pulls back due to this profit taking and the prices of these stocks come down to the following:
Access-N15.00, UBA-N10.00, GTCO- N30.00, Zenith- N29.50, FBNH-N12.00, WAPCO- N25.00 and Nigerian Breweries -N35.00.
It would be cherry-picking to the investor.
•What are the stocks to watch?
Nigerian Breweries, Guinness, WAPCO, Flourmill and MTN.
Source: Stock Market Review: July 5, 2023 – StocksWatch (stocksng.com)
