By Nkiruka Nnorom

BARGAIN hunters will continue to dictate the pace of activity in the equities market as investors continue to buy in on stocks that had depreciated in prior trading sessions.

The bargain hunting activity will come amidst profit taking, according to market operators.

This is even as Cowry Asset Management, an investment banking house, has placed the shares of Access Bank Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Okomu Oil Plc on buy with full year price target of N16.27, N341.08, N9.38, N3.16 and N104.48 per share respectively.

Other stocks that got buy rating include Presco Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc, United Bank for Africa, UBA Plc and Zenith Bank Plc with full year price target of N96.34, N13.65, N73.12 and N25.32 per share respectively.

Making prognosis into the new week, analysts at Cowry Assets Management said: “This week, we expect a mix of profit taking and bargain hunting activities amid improvement in the external sector.”

File photo: The floor of Stock exchange

“Whilst we reckon that the performance of the equities market will remain largely driven by the positive macroeconomic developments in the past three months, we do not eliminate the possibility of some profit taking in the early trading sessions of next week, Afrinvest Securities said in a report.’’

Analysts at Vetiva Capital are of the opinion that despite the profit-taking observed at the last trading day last week, which led to marginal drop in equities capitalisation, the market will still open in the green this week as buying sentiment still persists evidenced by the strong gains recorded in the first two sessions last week.

Financial Vanguard analysis showed that investors have continued to book gain as the market capitalisation rose by N344 billion from N11.108 trillion to N11.452 trillion, representing 3.1 per cent. The All Share Index, ASI, went up by the same margin to settle at 33,117.48 points from 32,122.14 points.

Performance across sectors was broadly positive as all indices trended northward week-on-week, w-o-w with the exception of the insurance sector that slid 0.1 per cent on account of 4.9 per cent and 0.3 per cent losses in Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc and Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc.

Industrial goods sector

The industrial goods sector led sector gainers, advancing 3.3 per cent on the back of gains in Dangote Cement Plc, which rose by 4.8 per cent and Lafarge Africa that advanced 2.9 per cent. 5.3 per cent and five per cent appreciation in UBA and Access Bank Plc resulted in three per cent increase in the banking sector, while the consumer goods sector rose by 2.2 per cent as a result of positive sentiment in P Z Cusson Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Breweries and which appreciated by 9.7 per cent and six per cent respectively. The oil & gas sector advanced by one per cent on the back 7.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent increase in Eterna Plc and Total Oil Nigeria Plc.

A total turnover of 1.171 billion shares worth N11.458 billion were executed in 13,763 deals in contrast to a total of 2.311 billion shares valued at N24.577 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 27,836 deals.

The financial services sector, measured by volume, led the activity chart with 899.307 million shares valued at N6.779 billion traded in 7,977 deals; thus contributing 76.78 per cent and 59.16 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The conglomerates sector followed with 111.022 million shares worth N189.462 million in 952 deals.