The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has been named the best-performing stock market among the 93 equity indexes being tracked by Bloomberg across the world.
The all-share index which opened at 38,800.01 inched higher by 310.16 points or 0.80 per cent to cross the 39,000 mark and close at 39,110.17 on Tuesday.
Also, the market capitalisation rose by N167 billion ($425m) to close at N20.446 trillion ($51.9bn) compared with N20.279 trillion ($51.553bn) achieved on Thursday before the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays.
Year-to-date returns are currently at 45.7%; the best annual return since 2013.
An analysis of the data available showed that investors had booked N7.31 trillion ($18.583bn) in gains as of December 22, 2020.
The rally was also supported by the dovish stand of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The apex bank cut the base monetary policy rate by 200 basis points to 11. 5%, in order to boost lending, discourage savings and drive growth to counter the pandemic effect on the economy, while also keeping rates low in the fixed income market.
Excess liquidity (created by CBN’s OMO restriction), the hunt for double-digit yields and depressed pricing, helped to rekindle local interest in the equities market in 2020.
The uptrend recorded at the end of trading on Tuesday was driven by price appreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks amongst which are; BUA Cement, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, NPF Microfinance Bank and NEM Insurance.
A breakdown of the price movement chart shows that Jaiz Bank dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 10% to close at 66k per share.
NEM Insurance followed with 9.56% to close at N1.49, while Lasaco Assurance rose by 8.82% to close at 37k per share.
NPF Microfinance Bank improved by 8.39% to close at N1.68, while Japaul Gold and Ventures appreciated by 8.33% to close at 52k per share.
Conversely, NCR led the laggards’ chart in percentage terms, losing 9.68% to close at N1.96 per share.
FTN Cocoa Processors trailed with 8.99% to close at 81k, while Trans-Nationwide Express shed 8.86% to close at 72k per share.
Chams shed 8.70% to close at 21k, while AXA Mansard Insurance lost 4.76% to close at N1 per share.
Also, the total volume of shares traded rose by 85.4% with an exchange of 722.57 million shares worth N4.38 billion (about $11.134m) in 5,042 deals.
This was in contrast with a total of 381.72 million shares valued at N7.97 billion (about $20.3m) exchanged in 2,925 deals on Thursday.
Transactions in the shares of AIICO Insurance topped the activity chart with 273.13 million shares valued at N326.09 million (about $829,000).
Oando followed with 81.45 million shares worth N323.33 million (about $822,000), while FBN Holdings traded 41.09 million shares valued at N294.21 million (about $748,000).
Access Bank traded 40.14 million shares worth N353.27 million (about $898,000), while Champion Breweries transacted 36.33 million shares worth N30.16 million (about $77,000).