Market, Business And Economic Outlook For Week 48

This report takes a comprehensive look at major events in the economic calendar and market activities in Nigeria and the world. It also previews what should likely take place in Nigeria this week.

In the NGX Equities market last week, the equities market only managed to attain two bullish runs. On Tuesday and Friday, The Tuesday bullish run was influenced by a huge volume of trading activity on Oando shares as investors scrambled to mop it up. This drove the ASI index to hit a high of N16.5billion.

Even though the market nose-dived into a selling frenzy, the market still managed to close bullish on Friday, November 26, 2021, with an ASI of 43,308.29 basis points.

On Friday, 4,450 deals with a volume of 305 million, valued at N3.58 billion, were traded. Thereby closing the week with a market capitalization for equities trading at N22.6 trillion. The stocks responsible for this recovery were FCMB, with 81 million units worth N247.84 million shares traded. This was followed by GTCO and ACCESS.

This week, investors will pay close attention to companies that will be releasing their financial statements. They will be interested in those companies whose statements of financial position look promising and in need of further investment.

Investors will also pay close attention to any fundamental factors that they may profit from or maximize their gains in their existing equity investment portfolios.

Capital market analysts expect investors to watch out for more mergers and acquisition deals like that of FLOUR MILLS OF NIGERIA LIMITED over HONEYWELL FLOUR MILLS LTD.

On the money market, the last CBN MPC meeting for the year ended with the apex bank maintaining all existing key parameters. The MPR, Cash Reserve Ratio, and liquidity ratio stayed the same.

For this week, analysts are expecting more funding pressures from OMO operations as some bills near their maturity dates.

Moreover, the demand for dollars, especially as the Christmas holiday is fast approaching, is expected to put pressure on the naira. This pressure is expected to affect positively or negatively the exchange value of the naira in all markets.

The new COVID-19 variant called Omicron will likely pose threats to business activities as nations close borders to people coming from affected countries.

Consequently, crude oil prices are expected to fluctuate, especially with the advent of the Omicron Covid 19 variant and a likely decline in demand coming from Germany. The German decline is coming at the back of a new policy aimed at increasing the number of electric vehicles to 30 million by 2030.

Generally, we expect a lot of economic activity to take place, especially as we approach the end of the year.

Finally, the last non-farm payroll report will be released in the United States of America.

This report takes into account the unemployment and job situation outside the self-employed and those working on farms in the USA. This report is compiled by the Bureau of Statistics. A positive reading will give strength to the US dollar and vice versa.