The Nigerian equity market ended the first quarter of 2022 on a strong footing, as the listed equities gained N3.01 trillion in the three months that ended March 31. Market capitalisation rose to N25.32 trillion on March 31, 2022, as against N22.29 trillion on the last trading day of 2021.
Market sentiment was very strong during the first quarter of this year, helping the All Share Index (ASI) to increase by 9.95 percent to 46,965.48 points on March 31 as against 42,716.44 points as of Dec 31, 2021.
Five sectoral indices outperformed the ASI. The best performing index is the NGX Oil/Gas Index that appreciated by 27.66 percent to settle at 440.44 points on March 31,2022 in comparison with 345.01 points on December 31, 2021.
The NGX AFR Div Yield Index posted 15.88 percent growth to close at 2,965.93 points compared with 2,559.43 points on the last trading day of 2021. NGX Growth Index appreciated by 13.93 percent during the quarter, as it value rose from 1,805.02 points as of December 31, 2021 to end the first quarter of 2022 at 2,045.57 points.
Both the NGX Meri Growth Index and NGX Main Board Index rose by 13.33 percent and 12.85 percent respectively. Their closing values for the first quarter are 2,045.57 points and 1,973.01 points respectively.
Other indices that closed positively are the NGX Premium Index, 7.83 percent; NGX Industrial Index, 5.39 percent; NGX Pension Index, 4.95 percent; NGX 30 Index, 3.99 percent; NGX Lotus Islamic Index, 2.77 percent, and the NGX Banking Index, 0.79 percent.
The other indices closed southward. NGX AFR Bank Value Index depreciated the most during the quarter as it shed 6.79 percent. it was followed by NGX Insurance Index that shed 6.03 percent; NGX Consumer Goods Index, -5.96 percent; NGX ASeM Index, -1.74; NGX MERI
Value Index, -0.35 percent; NGX Sovereign Bond Index, -0.31 percent and the NGX Corporate Governance (CG) Index, -0.11 percent.
Deals averaged 4,736 per day; volume average 345 million daily with the exception of March 11 and 14 when daily volume rose over a billion daily, just as the daily value on the Exchange averaged N4.8 billion.
