Afrinvest Issues Buy Alert on FMN Plc, Ecobank Shares

Afrinvest Issues Buy Alert on FMN Plc, Ecobank Shares

Afrinvest, a leading investment banking firm, has issued a buy alert on Flour Mills of Nigeria, United Bank for Africa and Ecobank Transnational Incorporation shares, asking investors to accumulate these stocks.

The buying alert comes as the investment firm hinted that its weekly sentiment indicator strengthened to 2.8x from 2.5x. The stock picking analysts also advised its clients to sell FBNH, go neutral on Fidelity Bank and reduce Sterling bank shares in their portfolios.

In the mid-day report, analysts at Alpha Morgan said the equity market is currently trading on a bearish note following declines in NB (-6.06%), BUACEMENT (-5.30%), FBNH (-2.55%), JAPAULGOLD (-2.08%), HONYFLOUR (-1.69%), and FIDELITYBK (-0.38%).

Overall, analysts see the Nigerian Exchange All Share Index is lower by 0.57%. Last week, the benchmark index rose 1.6% week on week to 40,868.36 points due to buying interest in FBNH (+21.7%) and AIRTELAF (+6.3%).

Accordingly, year to date returns improved to 1.5% while market capitalisation rose ₦340.3 billion to ₦21.3 trillion.  Afrinvest Analysts wrote that performance was bullish across the sector under its coverage last week as 4 indices advanced while 2 declined.

The Banking and AFR-ICT indices led the gainers’ chart, up 4.5% and 2.7% week on week respectively. Trailing, the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices gained 0.2% and 0.1% in the week respectively. On the flip side, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices fell 1.5% and 0.5%.

The top-performing stocks for the previous week were UPL (+28.5%), FBNH (+21.7%), and COURTVILLE (+17.1%) while CORNERST (-12.1%), MORISON and BOCGAS (-9.9%) led the laggards.

“This week, we expect this positive performance to be sustained on the back of the improved market sentiment”, Afrinvest said.

Afrinvest Issues Buy Alert on FMN Plc, Ecobank Shares