…Onyema stresses importance of capital market to economic growth

By Chinenye Anuforo

EQUITIES transactions on the Lagos floor of the Nige­rian Stock Exchange (NSE) again closed on a negative note yesterday after losing of 0.01 per cent.

The NSE All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 1.57 points to close at 24,637.91 points compared to a de­cline of 9.36 points record­ed on Tuesday to close at 24,639.48 points.

Similarly, the Market Cap­italisation lost marginally by N1 billion to close at N8.474 trillion from N8.475 trillion it started the day’s business with. At the end of trading session yesterday, investors exchanged a total 162.5 mil­lion shares worth N1.025 bil­lion in 3,079 deals.

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However, 16 stocks gained against 20 stocks that traded at losses. Topping the day’s price gainers were Ni­gerian Breweries, which led with a gain of N1.99 to close at N106.99 per share, fol­lowed by Guaranty (GTB), which gained 62 kobo to close at N14.83 per share. Crop producer, PRESCO Plc also advanced by 41 kobo to close at N35.01 per share, while Oando Plc followed increased by 26 kobo to close at N4.52 per share, Access Bank Plc also added 15 kobo to close at N3.71 per share.

Conversely, Nestle Nige­ria Plc topped the day’s price losers after it depreciated N30 to close at N645 per share. Mobil Plc followed with a loss N11.99 to close at N150 per share. Betaglas Plc also reduced by N2.27 to close at N43.23 while Okomuoil Plc fell by N1.21 to close at N30.04 per share. Flourmill Plc. likewise re­corded a 29 kobo decrease in its share price to close at N20 per share.

However, the Chief Ex­ecutive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Os­car Onyema, at the 2nd NSE/ London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) dual listings conference pointed out that capital market is critical to sustainability of growth, de­velopment in an economy.

He said: “It is my strong belief that one of the things that Nigeria (and Africa) needs to sustain its growth is a solid and vibrant capital market ecosystem that will attract investment and un­lock the potential that exists in the economy. Capital mar­kets increase the proportion of long-term savings that is channeled to long-term in­vestments.

He explained that based on current outlook for Econo­mies and Markets of the G7 countries, only the econo­mies of the United States and United Kingdom appear on track to have sustainably ex­ited the global financial crisis of 2008.