By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) started the first trading day of the week on a bullish note, appreciating by 1.49 percent, giving investors hope that the week will close positive like last week.
This is as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released figures last week that the Q4’17 imports and exports stood at N2.1 trillion and N3.9 trillion respectively, bringing current account balance to N1.8 trillion in the quarter, up 65 percent q/q and 168 percent y/y.
This also brought FY’17 net export to N4.0 trillion (surplus), compared to a net import of N290 billion (deficit) in FY’16.
The jump in the current account balance in Q4’17 was mainly due to a 10 percent q/q and 34 percent y/y increase in crude oil exports to N3.3 trillion, thus sustaining its position as the larger contributor (83 percent of total exports) to the account.
Last week, amidst news that US-based private equity firm, Milost Global Inc, was considering investing in Unity Bank, buying interest strengthened on the stock in recent sessions.
Unity Bank was the second highest gainer for the week (+19 percent) and currently trades at N1.77 with a gain of 234 percent so far this year.
This week, whilst the market sentiment is expected to remain mixed, investors anticipate more earnings releases to modestly dictate trading direction.
As usual, analysts at Vetiva Research have released their recommendations for the week and are presented in the picture below.
Adedapo Adesanya