Nigerian capital market key to economic growth

MR Boniface Okezie, the President of Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), on Monday described the capital market as critical to economic development and wealth creation.

Okezie made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, adding that the capital market should be effectively explored for economic development.

“In spite of the challenging economic conditions in Nigeria, the capital market still remains one of the main vehicles for economic development and wealth creation,” he said.

Okezie said that the downturn being experienced in capital market were due to economic uncertainties, profit-taking by investors and end of year factors, among others.

“It is in the nature of the capital market to fluctuate. When we talk about market data, we refer to the pre and post-trade-related data of the financial instruments traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

“NSE market data inform traders, investors, media and others in the market on quotations, latest price and historical trends of equities, fixed-income and ETF products that are traded on its platform.

“This information is not only used in real time to make instantaneous buy and sell decisions; the historical data are used to make price projections as well as calculate market risk on investment portfolios,” he said.

Okezie expressed the need for periodic seminars and workshops to provide capital market participants with sufficient knowledge about NSE market data for smart investment decisions.

NAN reports that 960.940 million shares worth N18.329 billion were traded by investors in 16,896 deals on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) last week.

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These were against 892.725 million shares valued at N13.075 billion exchanged in 15,607 deals in the preceding seeking.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 774.087 million shares valued at N9.244 billion traded in 10,637 deals.

The Conglomerates followed with 54.805 million shares worth N80.062 million in 740 deals.

The Consumer Goods Industry had a turnover of 43.013 million shares worth N3.341 billion in 2,468 deals.

The All-Share Index lost 1710.32 points or 5.02 per cent to close at 32,327.59 against 34,037.91 posted in the preceding week.

Also, the market capitalisation, which opened at N12.426 trillion shed N624 billion or 5.02 per cent, to close at N11.802 trillion.