By Mike Abbah
Investors in Nigeria’s equities market gained N14.5 trillion in August as All-Share Index jumped by 30% in August, 2024 amid headwinds confronting the economy in the past thirteen months.
At the close of trading on Friday, August 30, All-Share Index which measures the performance of the market rose to 96,579.54 points against 74,773,77 points it opened with on January 2, 2024 – the first trading of the year, constituting a 30 percent increase.
Market capitalization moved on the same expanding trajectory hit N55.47 trillion compared to an opening figure of N40.91 trillion in January, creating a value of N14.56 trillion for investors.
On year-to-year disaggregation, the local bourse also recorded a 30 percent jump, from 66,548.99 points to 96,579.54 points, while market capitalization rose to
N55.47 trillion from N36.42 trillion at the end of August 2023 which constitutes a growth of 52.3 percent,
Although the stock market began the year on a bullish note, various monetary policies converged with fiscal policies to define and redefine the performance of the domestic bourse.
All market indices, NGX Banking, Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods snowballed to the negative territory reflecting investors’ push for greener pastures. Although market experts said the hike in MPR to 26.75 per cent was targeted at further reducing liquidity from the banking system and jerking up cost of credit, the move impacted negatively on the manufacturing sector and, by extension, the equities market.
The banks’ recapitalization exercise which kicked off towards the end of March, 2024 was a boom for the financial services institutions and this pushed the banking index into the league of ‘golden’ stocks and contributed to the boost in stock deals during the eight months of the year.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) ‘s stock transaction figures for January to July 2024 were N941.62 billion higher than those seen in the same period of 2023. Total equity transactions in seven months to July 2024, stood at N3.095 t4illion as against N2.154 trillion obtained in July 2023.
Further analysis of the month-end performance of the NGX market indices showed the benchmark NGX All-Share Index (ASI) which inched up 171.66 (0.18%) points to close at 96,579.54, represented  a 1-week gain of 0.63%, a 4-week loss of 1.19%, but an overall year-to-date gain of 29.16%.
