Mr Gbenga Obisesan, the Managing Director, Topmost Securities Ltd., Lagos, on Monday urged the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to encourage the quotation of more firms on the nation’s bourse by reducing listing requirements.
Obisesan said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that listing of more companies would leverage the number of tradable equities in the capital market.
According to him, the appeal became imperative following the dwindling number of quoted firms currently at the Exchange.
He also attributed the low participation of the local investors in the Exchange to high listing requirements by NSE.
Obisesan said the stock market still has few trade-able equities because of the number of companies that delisted from the Exchange.
Obisesan said the market needed strong domestic investor participation to ensure sustainable growth and development, stressing that dominance of foreign investors would not help the market.
He also said that the character of foreign portfolio investors’ and their dominance at the NSE makes it difficult for the capital market to contribute immensely in the development of the economy.
Meanwhile, the All-Share Index of the NSE appreciated by 696.46 points or 2.42 per cent last week to close at 29,511.08 points from the 28,814.62 points recorded in the preceding week.
The market capitalisation rose by N239 billion or 2.42 per cent to close at N10.148 trillion from N9.909 trillion recording in the preceding week.
Ikeja Hotels led the gainers’ table with 72k to close at N3.43 per share.
Trans Nationwide Express followed with a gain of 21k to close at N1.07, while Stanbic IBTC N4.49 to close at N23.20 per share.
On the contrary, Neimeth Plc topped the losers’ chart with 21k to close at N1.02 per share.
E-Tranzact trailed with 37k to close at N2.34, while Conoil dropped N3.23 to close at N30.05 per share.
Overall 2.44 billion shares worth N21.07 billion were achieved in 22,736 deals against 2.05 billion shares valued at N17.87 billion achieved in 21,762 deals in the previous week.
The Financial Services sector remained the most active, accounting for 2.03 billion shares worth N14.26 billion traded in 12,94 deals.
The Natural Resources Industry came second on the week’s activity chart, trading 133.89 million shares worth N67.01 million in 16 deals.
NAN reports that the conglomerates sector followed with a total of 96.47 million shares valued at N589.28 million in 1,238 deals. (NAN)
Source : Leadership