The Rally so far: As tier 2 banking stocks take the lead.

By Morgan Capital Securities

In 2017, the Nigerian stock exchange emerged third best performing stock market in the world, following a 42.30% gain on the index. Consequently, this increased both foreign and local confidence, and has seen the market index advance by 17.37% Year-to-date (YtD).

However, tier-2 banking stocks, which missed out on the 2017 year-end rally have sustained bullish sentiments, causing counters like STERLNBANK to rally as high as 124.07% YtD. Other tier-2 banks like FCMB (+121.62%), SKYEBANK (+116.00%) and DIAMONDBNK (110.67%) have also recorded significant price advancements in the first month of the year.

As a result, the NSE banking sector index advanced 0.51% to close at 602.32 points at the close of trades on January 17, 2018 (YtD: +26.69%). The NSEIND (+19.70%), NSEINS10 (+13.41%), NSEOILG5 (+10.78%), and NSEFBT10 (+6.79%) indices have also recorded positive Year to Date growth.

Other sectors recorded growth but are lagging behind.

Article was culled from Morgan Capital Ltd