Nigerian Stocks To Buy

Best Time To Buy Into Nigerian Stock Market – Technical Analysis Of Share Prices Lets You Know When To Trade Cheap & Sell High Using Price Levels & Charts

While economic and fundamental analysis lets you uncover the top sectors to focus and the stock to rightly invest in, as I have shared on how to find best-performing stocks, you still need to perfectly have a good grasp of timing as a strategy in the stock market. As the saying goes, you can buy a good stock at the wrong time or buy the wrong stock at a good time. The latter has a higher chance of adding profit percentages to your portfolio even though the company’s fundamentals are not impressive while the former can drag you to a loss position. It all boils down “when you bought the shares”

Besides, one bad experience that made me take this advice seriously was when I invested in international breweries, I had shared my experience here on how I started trading the stock, mistakes and finding a better path to profit. I bought the company’s share at N24 and in few days, the price dropped to N16 and I quickly sold off, only to see the same stock reversed and surged to a new high. What would have been the missing knowledge that made me sell off quickly? I never perfected timing as a good stock trading strategy.

So, how then should I time my stock, after following your guide to picking the best-performing stocks to buy? The simple answer is, pay attention to stock price action at key levels and validate it with trading indicators. This is what we generally tag technical analysis of Nigeria stocks market.

Technical analysis is the process of analyzing and forecasting the direction of share price based on past movement or repetitive patterns. It helps you look at the overall market trend to ascertain investor’s sentiment about a company’s share.

A lot of traders have tried to compare technical analysis and fundamental in a bid to find which is perfect for stock trading but I am here to boldly say that “if you have preferred one to the other, you might be making a big trading mistake: fundamental helps you uncover the safest sectors and stocks to buy while technical drills down to the right time to buy”.

Let’s take CCNN – Cement Company of Northern Nigeria as an example. We have already done our analysis of the company’s financial positions using key metrics like profitability, liquidity, stability and rated the share a good buy, but did you know that, in the midst of the buy rating, you could buy at N21 and see the price fall to N15? The reason is simple, the price might have skyrocketed to the peak, buyers were already exhausted and if the volume of purchases is not strong again, investors will start taking profit by selling their holdings. Technical analysis lets you check the status of the market direction, so you wouldn’t lose out on entry.

I am not saying that CCNN will fall but the short term correction is something you need to watch before buying your next share in the company, except you are investing for a long term. Even, in long-term, you still can’t rule out the importance of technical analysis because you can apply it to the daily, weekly and monthly chart.

Why do we need to analyze stock technically before buying?

• It tells you whether the market is going up or down
• It tells you whether the trend (up or down) is strong or weak.
• It also tells whether the market is about to reverse to the other side; if it is going up, you get to know when it is about to change to the downside and vice versa.

Here, I will be sharing my personal combination of tools to trade profitably in Nigerian stock market using a secret finance blog. I only reveal this website to my subscribers in my exclusive trading club.

The first step to take when analyzing stocks for a perfect buy and sell time is to locate the key levels. Key levels are share price regions where a lot of buying and selling activities takes place. Buyers struggle to keep price going up and sellers were able to take over, or sellers dragged price to a region they couldn’t sustain then buyer push the price upward.

I always watch these key levels on every stock before deciding on the perfect time to enter. Let’s take a look at the chart below for better insights:

The yellow line labelled “A” is the upper key level known as resistance; it is that region price increases to before reversing. At least you can see how price reached the key level “A” twice before eventually breaking out. The same applies to “B” which we call support, the share price touched that region twice too before going up. My advice is this “When you see regions share prices approached several times before reversing, that region is referred to as the key levels.

The key levels are very important as that’s where buy opportunity surfaces if the price had been going down and close to key level “B”, it signals the potential of reversal to the upside. But, you might be at a risk of losing part of your portfolio value if you buy at a region close to key level A as price reversal to the downside is likely.

The next technical tool I explore is directional movement index, this tool never fails as it accurately reveals the general market trend instantly. I don’t need to interpret the chart or do the analysis but on display of three signal lines – strength, bull and bear, I already know what investors’ sentiments are.

Let’s take a look at directional movement index:

The directional movement index is the graph that contains, red, blue and black signal line. The blue represents an upward trend, the red is for downward trend while the black is the strength of the trend.

Here is how to interpret the graph and take trade decisions:

• When the blue and black line are trending up and above the red line, it signals a strong and bullish trend; the share price is going up as indicated by the yellow lines tagged “1” & “3”.
• When the red and black lines are trending up and above the blue line, it signals a strong bearish market; the share price is going down as indicated by the yellow line “2”.
• What if the blue and red lines are above the black line? it means that the share price is consolidating, that is no up and down market, just in a straight line. I have seen this play out several times on some company’s share, the price is neither going up nor coming down until a major news is released. In such situation, watch out for a breakout soon.

This pattern had once emerged on Cement Company of Northern Nigeria shares before it broke out and went to a new higher.

Look at the regions painted yellow on the chart below: the blue and red lines were above the black line, and price consolidated (no up, no down move) until the black line crossed the red line to sign a major upside.

I really can’t stress how powerful this tool is as it had helped me find the perfect time to buy.

So, if you refer to my fundamental analysis of CCNN stock, I can now conclude that the crossing of the black line above the red line signals the entry of new buyers and eventually price went from N16.20k to N20 in 2 weeks representing 62% return.

Please note that the ADX indicator is not 100% accurate, In my book, you will learn how I use it with three other leading indicators to confirm my buy or sell signal.

Do really think this is a great idea on the best time to buy Nigerian stocks? Please share your suggestions.

How To Pick Best Performing Stocks In Nigeria Today – Learn How I Pick Top Sector Stocks To Buy & Make Money More Trading Shares Online.

This trading strategy is a continuation of my previous guide on how to know which sector stocks to buy now. In that practical and well thought-out tips, I shared the number one economic indicator to watch before deciding on the sectors to focus on. The reason you must start your trading decision this way is that “the performance of the company you buy into is largely driven by the overall sector trend and government policies”. When government decisions favor an industry, it tends to attract more investment from big investors as they channel their funds to companies that will likely receive a boost.

Take, for instance, firms in the building material industry have been grappling with cash flow challenges, rising cost of operation and mounting debt level due to dwindling government revenue that had affected their ability to finance long-term capital projects. If you are an investor looking for sectors to stay away from, this is one of them as the general industry growth may be unimpressive.

But, a rising oil price in the past few months to $60 (above $45 benchmark) provided more revenue for the government to increase her spending on capital projects. From the 2018 budget, the sum of N300 billion was earmarked for road construction and rehabilitation, so expect building materials and cement companies to pick up as abandoned projects will be revisited and more projects awarded. For instance, take Dangote Cement, the company’s share (as at when I checked) is already up by 17.39% since the start of the year (2018), Larfage Africa, Northern Nigerian Cement, CAP Nigeria have also gained 17%, 85%, and 14% respectively.

This is a perfect example of how to uncover stocks that will deliver a great return on your investment; start from the overall macro indicator by following the global Oil market as shared here, then focus on sectors that will benefit from the trend and find great stocks in that sector. This doesn’t mean that all stocks in a top sector will perform well, some companies may still lag but your core focus is on buying the biggest winners.

Here are steps I have always follow strictly to find the best-performing stocks in the best sector.

Focus on the top sector indexes.

As at when I posted the guide, here are the top sectors with most gain:

• Banking index – up by 24% YTD
• Industrial Goods index – up by 21% YTD
• Insurance Index – up by 13% YTD

Source: NSE

See – How to find the best sector to invest.

When you begin your stock selection processes like this, you have automatically increased your chance of finding companies that will deliver a superior return. Like I always say, the performance of a stock is largely determined by the sector group and investors’ perception about growth in that industry based on general economic policies.

Find the best stocks

My next move is to look for stocks that are driving the sector as it’s not all the companies that make up the index will deliver the biggest return. From the three sectors listed above, let’s find the top performing stock in industrial goods:

I check the list of companies that make up the industrial goods sector on NSE market indices to screen out companies that have increased more in share price more than the index on year to date (YTD).

My top pick was CCNN – Cement Company of Northern Nigeria., a building material manufacturing, and marketing company focused on the Northern part of the country.

This company is currently up by 105.26% and 95% since the start of the year and in the last one month. What an outstanding return you will hardly come by if you didn’t start from sector performance.

Here is a screenshot of CCNN stocks as highlighted in yellow:

Did you know that you have bypassed so many complex mathematical calculations like discounted cash flow or financial ratio analysis to arrive at the type of stock everyone is looking for?

Check Fundamentals

If I invest in CCNN stock, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea but just that my trading decision would be half-baked, why? I need to validate the stock by checking few details about the financials of the company.

First, I look at profitability like current quarterly sales and earnings and be sure that the company is performing better than their previous result:

In the latest nine-month financial report, CCNN reported a revenue of N13.62b compared to N9.2b reported in 2016 representing 48% growth. EPS in the same period grew by 184% ( from 50k to 162k). Net profit margin increased to 14% from 7%

On the quarterly basis, sales, and profit also growth by 88% and 1499% respectively while net profit margin, an indicator of profit earned per sale rose from 2% in third quarter 2016 to 19% in the comparable period.

Here is a snapshot of CCNN third quarter result in 2017:

Shareholders fund were adequately utilized as return on equity stood at 15% in the current period from 6.2% in 2016.

Second, I look at the liquidity position of CCNN. The company is able to finance its short-term obligations as it has a positive current ratio of 1.76, higher than the previous year. I also love the impressive increase cash flow of N1billion from operative activities; they generate more cash from their business.

The third area is to look at how exposed CCNN is to long-term debt? Here, I focus on the long-term debt to equity ratio of the company to know if they are highly leveraged or not. A company that has more debt to equity will likely channel their profit to interest on long-term loans or resort to a right issue which will affect earnings per share, investor’s favorite metric.

 

From the result above, you will see that the company was able to manage its debt down to N2.7b from N3bn, no wonder debt to equity for the 9 months period was 20%, down from 26% level in 2016.

If all the major fundamentals of Cement Company of Northern Nigeria looks great, with the building materials industry projected to grow this year, ( as the government plans to spend over N300billion on infrastructure and road rehabilitation in 2018) tell me why I shouldn’t buy into such company’s share? Besides, the region the firm covers is an area that is ravaged by constant militant attacks and as so the government plans to rebuild the northern part of the country, the company should be among major players in such rehabilitation projects.

CCNN as of this writing trades at N16 per share, the stock is a potential pick for short to medium term gain.

If you had invested N100,000 early this year in CCNN, by now, your cash should have doubled to N215,000. I bought this stock last 2 years, and have already made 3X my cash which is far better than fixed deposit or treasury bills.

Like I said, you don’t need any complex formula to find the best performing Nigerian stocks, what I have shared here is enough to help you screen and pick good stocks to buy.

See – How to pick profitable penny stocks in Nigerian stock market

Do you know good stocks in a top sector? please share your picks, an idea could help an investor invest rightly.

How To Know Which Nigerian Stocks To Buy & Sell Now – Learn How To Analyse Nigerian Economy Using Oil Price, Forecast The Best Performing Sector Index Perfectly.

Whether you are buying shares for a long term or short term, the simple truth is you may not be profitable if you don’t take your time to analyze and understand the economic factors that affect the future prospect of your investment; forget what your stockbroker is saying, use your intuition to find one or two pieces of evidence to support your decisions.

For me, I always look at the economic trend and cycle we are currently in as that alone tells me which sectors of the economy is the best to invest in. I had an investment chat with a friend and shared a very simple and practical revelation as thus: “if you want to know which industries smart investors are putting their money, follow Oil prices and the factors affecting global production cut”. As at 2016-2017, OPEC and non-OPEC members held a meeting to have an agreed global production quota, a move that cushioned oil glut. That factor alone reversed the bearish Oil market to the other side (currently trading at $60, from a low of $40), This is a clear boom for Nigerian economy as the revenue from sales of crude output is driving the CBN reserve to a pre-crisis high of $40billion.

What does this mean for a smart investor? Focus on the sector that was badly hit by the previous falling prices and will likely benefit from a recovery.

Let’s discuss the effect of Oil prices on Nigeria economy and how it affects your stock performance using the 2016-2017 trend.

When Oil is down due to excess global output from US shale productions, rising inventory level, and increasing supply from non-OPEC members, countries that depend on the commodity tends to suffer from dwindling revenue and as such tightens their belt. Nigeria was badly hit by the falling revenue and that threatens the external reserve to low ($23b), the CBN at that point couldn’t sell more US dollars to banks for import finances which affected the availability of the greenback to the extent that SMEs resorted to buying dollars at a higher exchange rate from alternative markets. Ordinarily, when you incur more cost, it will definitely affect your button line (profit). The increased material input cost had an adverse effect on the overall consumer goods industries as operational cost skyrocketed.

The industrial good segment of the economy consisting of construction and heavy equipment companies also had their share of the bite as capital expenditure (CAPEX) was affected by fall in government revenue. CAPEX is a term used to describe capital expenditure of the government that drives infrastructural development.

What happened to the banking sector? when you look at a bank’s financials (specifically, the asset side), you will notice that a major percentage of bank’s loan and advances is exposed to the oil and maritime sector. A fall in oil price will likely affect the sustenance of loan repayment from companies in these sectors, as they grapple with dwindling revenue from oil sales.

According to CBN prudential guideline, banks are expected to provide for the loan whose recoverable value may fall below the actuals otherwise known as an underperforming loan. Provision for underperforming loans affects the profitability of banks too. When you run a check on the financials of some banks in 2016-2017, you will see the impressive top-line performance but an alarming provision that slowed down profit.

Even consumer had to tighten their personal spendings as prices of outputs went northside as producers look to pass on the extra cost of importing at a higher exchange rate.

I can go on to explain more effects of falling oil prices on different sectors but I think the information shared so far is enough to let you see the reasons Oil is a major driver of the Nigerian economy.

As Oil Recovers, What Next…

Let me share a chart of the recent recovering that started in the 2-3rd quarter, 2017 and show you how the rising price is helping the economy recover:

Notice the reversal that started in 2016 but showed a clear uptrend in May-July 2017, this was an after effect of the several OPEC meeting with non-members on the best oil output level to maintain, a decision that excluded Nigeria, Libya and eventually led to a positive GDP growth in 2017 to make Nigerian’s exit from recession. The Nigeria stock market index began to recover and ended the year as one of the best index performers with NSE ASI up by 42%.

Let’s take a look at the NSE ASI chart to confirm the positive correlation between Oil price and the index:

From the chart above, you discovered that both NSE index and Oil have repetitive trend patterns; the stock market fell and picked up, at the same period(May-July 2017) Oil price started its uptrend, to hit the 2014 high at 43,000 basis point. So, I haven’t just shared stories but also proved that the key driver of the Nigerian economy is oil and if you are looking for which Nigeria stocks to buy, always check the economic cycle. The boom period is characterized by rising oil price and bullish stock market while the recession period is the reversed.

Which Stocks Should I Buy Now As Oil Price Moves To A Higher Level?

Here are top 3 sector stocks to buy now and their revenue drivers:

• Banking stocks – this stock will enjoy reduced loan loss provision to oil sectors as oil price maintain a bullish trend. One of their profit boosters will mostly come from an increased net interest income.
• Consumer goods stocks – this sector will likely experience reduced material input costs from the stable exchange rate, hence drive operational profit.
• Industrial goods sector – An increase in oil price leads to more revenue from oil sales, hence drives government spending on major infrastructural. I see cash flows available for heavy equipment and industrial companies.

That’s all for now. I think you are well informed on how to know which Nigerian stocks to buy and sell right now. Like I shared earlier, focus on Oil and you will always find the next big opportunity.

See – How to pick the best stocks to trade for maximum profit.

Best Sectors To Buy Shares & Invest In Nigeria – Part 1 – Learn How To Trade Shares Online, Find Top Performing Sector Index – NSE Banking, Industrial, Oil & Gas, Insurance Index.

I always tell small traders who are just entering the stock market not to focus fast rising shares but invest in sectors with most liquidity. This is very vital because liquidity drives price and makes it easy for you to buy and sell your shares faster when the need arises. In my early days of trading, I never knew the importance of liquidity until I offered to sell my shares in an insurance company but was unable to do so; my broker would take my order to the market on opening hours and come back to tell me that there was no bid, only offers (everyone wanted to sell), then I started asking why I couldn’t sell my stock in the market and realised that only a few traders buy and sell the shares daily. I checked the stock market section of BusinessDay Newspaper to see the volume of transactions traded daily and discovered that it would take a while to find buyers because the stock was underperforming; no one was ready to buy into an ailing company.

That one mistake from that made me focus on shares that were heavily traded in millions per day so that when I compare my  XX, XXX units orders with what is exchanging hands it will be easy to find buyers. 

See – How I Started Trading Stocks Online With 3 Investing Principles

In this investing guide, I will be sharing my simple steps to uncover sectors investors are currently trading millions of shares week on week. The investors I am referring to are not retail investors but foreign institutional investors, mutual funds, investment managers, pension fund administrators, insurance companies and banks. These guys trade millions of shares and when they buy, you will see the ripple effect on the price of your shares and when it’s time to sell quickly, you really do not have issues liquidating your investments as they are readily available to bid; only if they see that the company had a solid growth record.

So how then will I know where they are putting more money in so that I can capitalize on that, buy into such stocks and sell back to them when it appreciates by 10-15% in 5-10 days of trading? Here is my simple guide to do that:

• Go to Nigeria stock exchange website and look through the weekly report section – 

  The NSE Weekly Market Report presents a summary of all activities relating to securities trading on The NSE’s market. It includes a detailed summary of securities traded in the week under review, company-specific financials, corporate actions and other announcements.

• Click on the latest report for the week and locate the index movement. The stock market is categorized into different sectors which represent a group of listed equities in similar industries or similar line of businesses. each of the categories is represented under banking, consumer goods, industrial, insurance, and oil & gas. 
• Find sectors that are recording best positive performance on a year to date (YTD), quarter to date (QTD) and month to date (MTD). These are the sectors big investors are actively putting their money into.  As at when we posted this guide, the NSE banking index (an index that tracks the performance of all listed banks) recorded 21.89% on it’s YTD, QTD, and MTD column, followed by NSE Industrial Index and NSE oil and gas to record 15% and 14% respectively.  This means that top investors are putting more money into the banking sector, no wonder the sector has more traded volume. On the other hand, the consumer sector at similar period has the least volume interest.
• The final step is to locate top performing companies in these sectors and buy into them. 

You may be wondering, why do I need to pay attention to liquidity in the stock market? The first reason is to avoid being stuck when you need to sell and the second is take advantage of high volume transactions that can drive prices higher in a bullish market. These top investors have invested so much in hiring the best analyst, and trend watchers, so they have more information about every sector than you do. If you see more fund managers, insurance companies, banks, pension managers gradually moving their fund into a particular sector, it will reflect in the shares trading volume and prices (industry index). But, the downside risk is that you could also experience sharp price fall in a bearish market too.

While this is not 100% foolproof, I still believe it will help you find the best sector stocks institutional investors are currently paying more attention to.

See – How I Pick Best Performing Stocks To Buy