Goddy Egene
Meristem Securities Limited has predicted that the Nigerian equities market will sustain its positive momentum through the better part of the year.
The equities market posted a record gain of 50.03 per cent in 2020 and the positive gain has extended into 2021.
Owing to this, in its economic outlook report for the year 2021, titled ‘Bracing for a Different Future’, the investment banking group is upbeat on the future of the market.
Speaking on the report during a webinar attended by institutional investors, corporate clients, retail investors amongst other industry professionals, the Deputy Managing Director of Meristem Securities Limited, Mr. Sulaiman Adedokun, said: “The equities market recovered from deep selloffs to finish as the best performing equities market last year, with unattractive yields in the fixed income market, excess liquidity and a resilient corporate performance in the middle of a pandemic as major factors which drove the market.
“We expect these factors to persist thereby sustaining the positive momentum of the market through the better part of the year in the first half of the year. We expect the financial market to be dominated by attractive dividend yields and the low yield in the fixed income market.”
According to him, the outlook report highlighted a wide range of issues relevant to an evolving future.
“With a global economy that has been scarred by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic economy was not left out, as the Nigeria economy slipped back into a recession, amplifying the structural weakness of the domestic economy in the form of weakening exchange rates, rising inflation among others,” he said.
Sulaiman said Meristem’s H2:2020 Outlook: “Unmasking Value in a Scourge” had warned that the threat of a second wave of new Covid-19 pandemic was very much a possibility, noting that as a result, the recovery of economic activities would remain fragile until a vaccine is developed.
“The face of work has changed and many corporate organizations and their employees are rapidly adopting cutting-edge technology to meet future of work in a COVID-19 era. While fielding questions from journalists about how the organization has deployed its business continuity plan, Sulaiman expressed that “The pandemic has influenced changes amongst people globally and we have enabled this change in our organization by utilizing the power of technology, we have also adopted a work from home culture that enables team collaboration through technology, we intend to maintain this even beyond the pandemic”
