Capital Market Closed Big as NGX ASI Hits 15-year High
The Nigerian capital market closed big in trading today as the All Share Index (ASI) hit a 15-year high.
The All-Share Index of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) had risen by 0.51 percent to 66,490.34 points from 66,151.38 the previous day, surpassing the highest value of 66,371.20 recorded on the Exchange on March 5, 2008 just before the 2008 capital market meltdown set in.
The performance was, in part, attributed to a surge in banking stocks as investors strategically positioned themselves, taking advantage of the recent record earnings posted by banks. Consequently, market capitalisation increased by 0.51 percent to close at N39.69 trillion from N36.21 trillion recorded on Monday with investors gaining N510 billion at the end of the day.
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Reacting to the development, Mr. David Adonri, Vice Chairman, Highcap Securities, said: “The implication is that now, the market is deeper and should be more resilient. However, the fact that prices have skyrocketed to current levels still leaves questions as to the absorptive capacity of the equities market.
“As a result of the momentum that is still gathering in the secondary market, there is increasing clamour that time has come for the primary market to be energized with new strategic equity issues so as to soak away pressure from the secondary market. This conducive atmosphere should be used to mobilize equity capital for strategic sectors especially metallurgy, tools and machines making industry, chemical industry, electric power and clean energy industry as well as technical education.”
Meanwhile, the analysis of today’s transactions showed that the banking sector experienced the most significant daily gain, rising by 1.63 percent, followed by the consumer goods sector with a 0.99 percent increase, while the industrial goods sector saw a 0.21 percent uptick.
Conversely, the oil/gas sector dipped by 0.09 percent, while the insurance sector recorded a substantial decline of 1.56 percent, both attributable to investors reallocating their funds.
Further analysis of today”s market activities revealed a substantial increase in trade turnover compared to the previous session, with transaction values surging by an impressive 79.18 percent. Consequently, the total volume of stocks traded reached 436.95 million units, valued at N7.02 billion, across 7,933 deals.
This marked a significant uptick from the 311.12 million units valued at N3.92 billion traded in 7,193 deals on Monday.
