After ending the month of April 2009 on a positive note as the All share Index closed above the 21,000 basis points mark, the month of May 2009 has begun on a positive note. This is evident as the prices of stocks continued in its upward movement contrary to expectations of profit taking by investors. This is also happening at a time when major world markets in America, Europe and Asia have performed very well in the last one month.

The last ten trading days in April 2009 witnessed a bullish run as prices of equities, especially blue chips were on the steady rise. The market index also witnessed a steady increase as it bounced back from below 20,000 basis points to over 21,000 basis points. The banking, petroleum, conglomerates and food/beverages sub-sectors of the exchange were mostly responsible for the bullish run. Some stocks that have gained over 20 percent between April 6, 2009 and May 6, 2009 include

UBA: from N8.36 to N11.27 (34.80 percent)
Intercontinental bank: from N6.30 to N8.30 (31.74 percent)
Guiness plc: from N89.55 to N112.00 (25.06 percent)
Nigerian Breweries: from N36.40 to N46.20 (26.92 percent)
Flour Mills: from N14.65 to N18.16 (23.95 percent)

On May 4, 2009, the first day of trading for the month, the index dropped about 48 basis points only to gain over 230 basis points the following day. This of course indicates that there is still a high demand out there for stocks, most of which are currently underpriced. If you are asking whether this rally would be sustained or not, only time will tell. Be that as it may, investors can only hope and believe that May 2009 would at least be a month of increase in portfolio value, fueled by increase in stock prices.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Tags: Nigerian Stock exchange
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