The stock market staged a rebound today closing higher with a 1.22% gain and snapping a ten day losing streak that saw the index drop to below 38,000 points. Many stocks lost significant values in its wake as investors reacted negatively to the global market sell offs as well as drop in crude oil prices. These made many stocks look quite undervalued and ripe for bargain hunters to swoop as people fled. These are some of the stocks you probably should have bought last week if you had the cash.
Seplat – The Oil company hit a year low last week dropping to as low as N548.3. Seplat announced on Friday that its board was meeting next week to consider dividend payments. The stock gained 4.7% to close at N574.
UBA – The bank lost the most last week closing at N5.29 after opening at N6.35. The bank had no negative news to worry about yet it shed almost 17% in value taking it to a one year low as well. This was another stock ripe for the taking and in hindsight probably one that should have been snapped. UBA gained 9% MONDAY
FBNH – The Tier 1 bank was in the news for the wrong reasons last week as investors dumped the stock in droves in apparent reaction to the global sell offs. This sent the stock to a year low of N11 and at some point dropped below N11 during trading. FBNH rebound started on Friday after gaining 7% and followed up today with a gain of 6.6% to close at N12.58
Transcorp – This was one of the better performers this year and yet many sold off the stocks for fear of a world market sell-off. Ironically, the company had little to do with Oil or banks and ordinarily should not have lost the 14.5% it shed. This week, it was either the stock bounce back or begin a slide that could reverse its year to date gains. It did the former and closed 8.3% higher today.
The lesson here for all is that you really cannot time the market. Emotions should not take the better of qualitative judgement when it comes to stocks. It does require a lot of bravery not to panic sell and even much more courage to buy when others were selling.
See list of Gainers and Losers
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