Investors gain N1.83trn in May as Nigerian stocks post best return in Sub-Saharan Africa

Nigerian stocks posted an impressive performance by out-shining its peers in Sub-Saharan Africa, registering a month-to-date gain of 6.4 percent at the end of May 2023. This comes despite the soaring inflation and weak indices in the economy.

Market operators linked the gains to President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural speech. Tinubu had stated that his administration will move to remove the fuel subsidy as well as work on unifying exchange rates.

He also stated that his administration will be targeting a higher GDP growth, create jobs, work towards a unified exchange rate and ensure that investors and foreign businesses repatriate their hard earned dividends and profits home.

In comparison with other markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria outperformed South Africa, Ghana, and Egypt in year to date May 2023.

For example, South Africa’s FTSE/JSE All Share Index gained 3.2 percent, Ghana’s GSE Composite Index gained 2.76 percent while Kenya’s lost 18.66 per cent in the same period.

This was even as investors trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) gained N1.83 trillion in the month under review.

It will be recalled that the market had declined by 1.9 percent and 0.8 percent in March and April respectively amid profit-taking by investors, uncertainties to the build-up of the February elections as well as rising inflation.

However, a thorough look at market data available on the NGX’s website showed that the NGX All Share Index (ASI) which opened the trading month at 52,403.51 points, close the month at 55,769.28 points, rising by 6.42 percent.

Also, market capitalisation increased by N1.833 trillion from an opening figure of N28.533 trillion to N30.366 trillion – the first time since March 2023.

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Further analysis of the market performance revealed that the market turnover increased by 10 per cent as investors staked N130 billion in 12.8 billion shares which exchanged hands in 217,72 deals in the month under review as against N118 billion which was staked in 11.6 billion in 189,007 deals in the previous trading month (April 2023).

Reacting to the performance of the market, analysts noted that while the bullish sentiments as well as the inauguration of President Tinubu have provided a boost to investor confidence, investors will still take a cautious approach to trading with an eye on how well the new administration’s policies will be swiftly implemented.

Mike Eze, Chief Executive Officer, Crane Securities said that the gain was expected owing to the speech made by the President.

The issues mentioned by the President have been the issues boggling the economy and so when he made those remarks, investors reacted positively to it. However, by next week, investors would trade cautiously to see how well the policies of the new administration will be swiftly implemented.