Goli Innocent 
Positive investors’ sentiment in the stock market last week drove a N536 billion gain at the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX, beginning of the month’s (September) trading on Friday, and this is despite the concerns around the soaring interest rate hikes and weak macroeconomic indices.
The market which opened at N36.422 trillion, maintained an upward trajectory, to close at N36.958 trillion, indicating a 1.47 percent capital gain.
Similarly, the All Share Index (ASI) moved up by 1.47 percent to 67,527.19 points from 66,548.99 points.
This brought the cumulative gains for the week to N1.077 trillion or 3.00 percent of Week-to-Date (WtD) returns.
This comes as African Markets, a website tracking the performance of stock exchanges in Africa, named the NGX as one of the best-performing exchanges in Africa in the last three months.
According to the report, Ghana Stock Exchange (+22.84%) emerged first, followed by Nigeria’s NGX (+19.33%) while Malawi Stock Exchange ranked third with +15.79% returns.
Analysts had attributed the recent rally, which saw the market hit a 15-year high on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, to the jostling by investors for low, medium, and high capitalised stocks across some major sectors amid favourable policies introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s new administration.
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Investors have been strategically positioning themselves and taking advantage of the recent record earnings posted by quoted firms.
Reacting to the performance of the market last week, market analysts maintained that most investors, particularly domestic investors, are optimistic that the economy will take shape soon, hence the reason behind the stock market defying current macroeconomic uncertainties.
Cordros Research, in their financial market review and outlook titled: “Veering from the Watershed Please”, said that the equities market resilience reflects heightened investor optimism for domestic growth on the back of the promulgation of long-needed policies by Tinubu’s administration.
According to the report, the implementation of policy reforms, accommodative monetary policy, and resilient corporate earnings have so far supported buying activities in August.
The report further said that “Even though foreign investors are expected to stay on the sidelines as long as FX illiquidity issues persist, its baseline expectation is that the market will deliver a positive return of 25.8% in the full year of 2023”.
