Investors’ Fortune Rises By N405bn As Market Hits N11.8trn

Despite the N280bn losses incurred by investors in two trading days, following the announcement of the presidential election result, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) gained N405bn in the month of February 2019.

Specifically, the market capitalisation of listed equities, which opened at N11.424 trillion as at Friday, February 1, 2019, stood at N11.829 trillion when the market closed for the month on February28, 2019, representing N405 billion or 3.4 per cent gain.

Also, the All-Share Index that measures the performance of quoted companies rose by 1,085.4 points from 30,636.36 points to 31,721.76 points.

The stock market had last week Thursday, shed N194.84 billion on the back of sell off in blue-chip stocks like Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Guaranty Trust Bank and Stanbic IBTC Holdings.

Nestle lost N30, or two per cent; NB, N3.70, or 4.45 per cent; GTBank closed N2.50 or 6.85 per cent lower; Stanbic IBTC Holdings, N2.05, or 4.23 per cent; and Dangote Flour Mills, N1.05, or 8.79 per cent.

Thursday’s loss was the biggest since the release of Nigeria’s February 23, 2019, Presidential election results on Wednesday morning, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari winner.

The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has however protested the outcome and hopes to seek redress in court, a development that may not be co-incidence that the stocks, which dominated Thursday’s loss, are those blue-chip stocks played by foreign investors.

At the end of trading for the month, Seplat still gained N84, recovering partly from its N105 loss in January; Nestle also recovered N30 from prior month’s N45 loss; the N19 by Beta Glass was enough to wipe off its N8.30 loss in January; Presco gained N15, which more than atoned for the N4.00 loss it sustained in the preceding month; just as NB’s N5.50 was not enough to wipe off its N11.50 decline in January.