Nigeria’s capital market activities remain positive in the first half (H1) of 2022 as both local and foreign investors on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) gained about N3 trillion.
According to data obtained from NGX, the All-Share Index (ASI) which opened the year at 46,624.67 points appreciated by 11.14 percent to 51,817.59 points as at June 30, 2022 while market capitalisation grew by N2.81 trillion to N27.940 trillion from the year’s opening figure of N25.130 trillion.
This positive comes despite the compounding damage from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which slowed down the global economy.
The volume of stocks traded declined by 19.03 per cent from N7.37 billion shares to N5.96 billion shares while the value of stocks traded in the period under review fell to N78.46 billion from N161.73 billion, representing a 51.5 per cent decrease.
Analysis of the data revealed the deals on the bourse grew by 9.32 percent from 88,257 deals in January 2022 to 96,480 deals. The top price gainers in H1 2022 include; Meyer, Academy, Guinness, NAHCO and RT Briscoe with 447.83 per cent, 154 per cent, 132.05 per cent, 127.27 per cent and 120 per cent respectively.
Further analysis showed that the value of fixed income traded rose by 84.81 per cent to 348,602.00 from 188.623.00 in January 2022 while the value of fixed income traded moved from 190.97 to 356.844 representing an 86.86 percent rise.
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In addition, the market capitalisation of fixed income moved from N21.42 trillion to N22.231 trillion in June 2022.
Reacting to the performance of the market, the Managing Director of APT Securities and Funds Ltd, Mallam Garba Kurfi said available data for the half year showed a 61 per cent increase in the total NGX market turnover and 21.31 per cent gain in ASI compared to the same period of the previous year.
Among the factors that contributed to this impressive performance is that most of the major capitalised stocks, that is, Airtel Africa, MTNN, Dangote Cement and BUA CEMENT, which control over 70 per cent of the total market capitalisation gained about 50 per cent during the period under review and qualified to be Invest by PFAs, which they did,” Kurfi said.
Also speaking on the gain in the market, the MD of ARM Securities Limited, Rotimi Olubi, said the improved participation by local investors in the market and the strong earnings result from some quoted companies buoyed investor sentiment in H1 2022.
“The performance of the capital market has been impressive in H1 2022. The equities market recorded stellar performance in the first half of the year crossing 50,000 points (highest since 2008) in the 18th week and 54,000 points at the end of the 21st week. We allude to this strong performance to decent earnings released by firms, especially in the industrial sector, (Dangote Cement, Lafarge Cement and BUA Cement), telecommunications sector (MTNN and Airtel Africa) and consumer goods and staples (Guinness, Cadbury and International Breweries, Dangote sugar) and the banking sector (GTBank, UBA, Accesscorp, Fidelity),” Olubi said.
