Aradel, other stocks drive Santa-Claus rally on NGX

The traditional Santa-Claus rally on the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) continued on Monday as the market rose by 0.55 percent at the close of trading.

This positive outcome follows last week’s 1.19 percent increase, as investors position themselves ahead of the year-end.

So far this month, the market has gained 2.48 percent, with the year-to-date (YtD) return rising to 33.63 percent.

Investors who purchased stocks such as Aradel (+N50 or +10 percent), Africa Prudential (+N1.55 or +9.87 percent), Golden Guinea (+76 kobo or +9.64 percent), Ikeja Hotel (+80 kobo or +10 percent), and Caverton (+18 kobo or +10 percent) were instrumental in pushing the market higher.

Ahead of Monday’s trading, analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Research maintained a cautiously optimistic outlook for the market this week. However, they noted, “we cannot rule out the possibility of profit-taking in stocks that have seen strong gains last week.”

The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) rose from 99,378.06 points to 99,922.63 points.

Meristem research analysts indicated in their recent note that “the broad market’s positive momentum is expected to persist, supported by improved market breadth, which expanded significantly by +47.88 percent week-on-week (WoW) to 2.38x (compared to 1.61x last week), as short-term bargain hunting and the Santa-Claus rally continue.”