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The continuous bullish trend being recorded at the Nigerian
Stock Exchange has been attributed to the positive macroeconomic performance
witnessed in the first quarter (1Q) of the year, equity research analysts at
Renaissance Capital have said.

The investment analysts, in a statement on Monday, said “Robust
macroeconomic performance in the first quarter of the year support equities’
gains.” They supported their claims with the figures reported by the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), during last week’s meeting of the monetary policy
committee.

The CBN announced that macroeconomic performance in 1Q of 2010
was sound, with gross domestic product growing 6.7 per cent (up from 4.5 per
cent growth in 1Q09), inflation relatively constant at 12.3 per cent (as
against 12 per cent in the 4Q09), and the naira stable at about N150.43 per $1
on the interbank market.

Market forecast

Predicting market performance for this week, Renaissance
analysts said “This week, we are confident that equities remain the strongest
play on expected strong corporate earnings releases – particularly from
consumer and banking names – and we think investors would be well advised to
move out of fixed-income securities and into equities, in light of the
substantial depression in the yield curve.

“We are bullish on non-financials that have lagged the market in
the recent rally. We also favour those financial stocks for which we see a
build-up in demand: such as BCC, UACN Properties, Diamond Bank,” they added.

Meanwhile, Proshare Nigeria Limited, an investment advisory
firm, said it is expected that investors will continue to chase after the
stocks of companies that declared returns.

The company noted despite the bearish trend recorded in two
trading days during the past week, the stock market closed on a positive note.
The market at the end of the week recorded appreciations in three of the five
trading days. It said the sell pressure recorded in the two trading days could
be attributed to “investors’ besieging the market for profit taking” following
the six trading days appreciation earlier recorded.

However, Proshare said it would augur well for the market and
the investing public in general if all the quoted companies can declare their
financial results on time, “instead of unnecessary delay that keeps investors
in suspense.”

Gainers and losers

At the close of trading on Monday, Guinness Nigeria and Mobil
Oil Nigeria topped the price gainers’ table with an increase of N7.74 and N7.57
on their opening prices of N154.99 and N151.44 per share. Oando Oil and Julius
Berger Nigeria followed in the chart with an increase of N6.02 and N2.67, to close
at N126.53 and N56.14 per share.

Total Nigeria and African Petroleum led the price losers’ chart
with a loss of N8.28 and N2.29, to close at N185.87 and N45.10 per share. RT
Briscoe and Nigerian Breweries followed with a decrease of N1.34 and N1.28 on
their initial prices of N6.50 and N70.81 per share respectively.

Bears across the globe

Stock markets were bearish across the globe on Monday. The
Australian Securities Exchange’ ASX lost 1.36 per cent while the Hong Kong’
Hang Seng was down by 2.10 per cent. Also, the Canadian TSX 60 Index and
Japanese Nikkei 225 recorded 0.52 per cent and 1.74 per cent depreciation,
respectively.

In Europe, the Germany DAX Index lost 0.12 per cent while the
Europe Euronext 100 Index and the France CAC 40 Index lost 0.50 per cent and
0.42 per cent. The Switzerland Market Index also decreased by 1.28 per cent.