Stocks gain over N120bn in trading week marred by protests

In a trading week marred by protests against police brutality, Nigeria’s stock investors still pocketed about N121billion gain.

The week ended Friday October 16 turned positive following increased bargain on the last trading session despite record days of flat closes at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The performance indicators of the stock market of Africa’s largest economy – All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation – increased by 0.86percent to close the review week at 28,659.45 points and N14.979trillion from week open low of 28,415.31 points and N14.852trillion respectively.

Most counters on the Bourse witnessed price corrections in the review week after previous rally pushed them to record highs. Amid this development, the recent social protests across the country is also being closely watched by the stock investing public.

The year-to-date (YtD) performance remained positive at +6.77 percent; while this month the stock market has yielded positive return of +6.79 percent.

“The year 2020 has been one of the most eventful years for the global economy and more specifically, the Nigerian economy. First, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought the Nigerian economy to a halt as the government, like other government across the world, implemented strict lockdown measures to curb a further spread of the virus.

“Accordingly, this negatively impacted the Nigerian equities market as companies were forced to quickly readjust to the new realities. Notably, the exchange which had started out as the best performing equities market in the world at the beginning of the year, quickly sank into bear territory, reaching an historic low at the peak of lockdowns”, Lagos-based analysts at United Capital said in their October 14 note .