Research analysts anticipate continued buying interest despite Airtel Africa's negative impact on the stock market, causing N14 billion losses for investors. However, investor behavior is expected to be influenced by the outcome of the upcoming meeting of the CBN's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held today and tomorrow.

Although the market experienced buying pressure, resulting in a rise on four out of five trading days, profit booking in Airtel Africa Plc (-6.0%) slightly pulled down the equities index by 0.1%.

Similarly, the market capitalization of all listed equities declined by the same margin, from N28.431 trillion to N28.417 trillion, compared to the previous week.

Despite the lackluster performance of the All Share Index, sectoral analysis reveals a bullish trend. With the exception of the oil & gas sector, which experienced a 1.67% loss due to dividend markdown and price adjustments in Seplat Energy, other sectors demonstrated positive growth.

The insurance sector emerged as the top gainer, experiencing a 5.20% appreciation as investors showed renewed interest in the sector. Additionally, the banking and consumer goods sectors recorded gains of 2.88% and 1.86% respectively.

However, the industrial goods sector ended the week without significant changes.

On the other hand, trading activity witnessed a bearish trend with a decline in both traded volume and value. The traded volume decreased by 15.90% to 3.03 billion units, while the traded value dropped by 42.49% to N17.54 billion.

Looking ahead to the new week, analysts at Cowry Asset Management predict that the current pattern of buying interest in value stocks and profit taking will persist. The liquidity levels in the market are expected to be supported by dividend payments from companies, while core investors continue to rebalance their portfolios in anticipation of markdown dates, the MPC meeting, and expectations regarding the Q1 GDP report.

Moving forward, investors are expected to concentrate on the results of the upcoming MPC meeting, seeking greater clarity on the direction of yields in the fixed-income market.