Nigerian Capital Market Appreciated By 3.20 Per cent

The Nigerian capital market on Tuesday, appreciated by 3.20 per cent following MSCI Index provider decision that it would not implement changes for any of the nation’s securities from its frontier market index. The market capitalisation inched N276 billion or 3.20 per cent to close at N8.897 trillion against N8.621 trillion posted on Friday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index which opened at 25,062.41 grew by 803.09 points or 3.20 per cent to close at 25,865.50 following gains recorded by some highly -capitalised stocks.

A capital market operator, Mr Ambrose Omordion, attributed the growth recorded to investor’s reactions to MSCI pronouncement that it would implement changes for any Nigerian securities in its frontier market index following feedback from investors.

Omordion said that the pronouncement lifted investors’ confidence in the nation’s capital market leading to rally recorded by some blue chips. He stated that the upturn was mostly impacted by price appreciation recorded by Nestle, Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries, Lafarge Africa, Guinness, Zenith Bank and GT Bank.

NAN reports that MSCI in April said that it was monitoring accessibility of Nigerian equities market after introduction of restrictions on foreign currency trading and the resulting continuous deterioration of foreign exchange market liquidity. It said that the ease of capital inflows and outflows was one of the key criteria in the MSCI Market Classification Framework.

A breakdown of the price movement table showed that Nestle led the gainers’ table, growing by N63.06 to close at N678.32 per share. Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N8.17 to close at N171.57, while Nigerian Breweries increased by N5.79 to close at N121.68 per share.

Lafarge Africa gained N3.39 to close at N71.38 and Guinness appreciated by N2.72 to close at N94 per share.

Conversely, Forte Oil topped the losers’ chart, dropping N20.89 to close at N193.46 per share.

Glaxosmithkline trailed with a loss of N1.12 to close at N21.43, while National Salt Company of Nigeria dropped 43k to close at N8.27 per share. FBN Holdings shed 7k to close at N3.53, while Fidelity Bank also declined by 7k to close at N1.10 per share.

Similarly, the turnover of shares traded closed higher with an exchange of 230.12 million shares valued at N1.50 billion transacted in 3,474 deals. NAN reports that this was against 229.11 million shares worth N1.50 billion traded in 3,493 deals on Friday.

Access Bank drove the volume of shares traded, accounting for 47.44 million shares worth N200.51 million. It was followed by FCMB Group with 27.79 million shares valued at N26.41 million, while FBN Holdings sold 24.98 million shares worth N89.04 million.

Zenith Bank accounted for 19.74 million shares valued at N255.51 million, while Fidelity Bank exchanged 18.95 million shares worth N20.82 million.