Africa-Press – Nigeria. In a year largely turbulent for business and financial markets around the world, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) mercifully turned out an impressive return as market capitalisation opened at N12.958 trillion and closed at N21.057 trillion, meaning that stocks generally appreciated by 50.03% in 2020.
The Industrial Index came top of the five sectorial indices of the exchange as stocks in this category yielded almost double of what their value was when the market opened at the beginning of the year.
All the key market performance indicators advanced in the week that just went by. A negative market breadth was recorded, with 32 losers emerging against 35 gainers. The All-Share Index rose by 3.79% and market capitalisation by 3.83%. While the former closed at 40,270.72 index points, the latter closed at N21.057 trillion.
Trade volume of 1.806 billion shares worth N25.966 billion was recorded in 14,634 deals relative to the 2.756 billion shares valued at N40.311 billion posted in 17,459 deals last week.
On the activity chart, the Financial Services sector dominated trade with 1.266 billion shares estimated at N7.630 billion traded in 7,251 deals. Specifically, it added 70.07% and 29.38% to the total equity volume and value respectively. The Oil and Gas industry came next, trading 193.541 million shares worth N783.214 million in 1,093 deals. The Consumer Goods sector was third, trading 117.755 million shares priced at N1.050 billion in 2,116 deals.
As regards index movement, all indices on the NSE appreciated save for NSE Banking, AFR Bank Value and NSE Consumer Goods which declined by 0.56%, 0.02% and 0.50% respectively. The NSE ASeM and NSE Growth indices closed flat.
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