Nigeria’s stock market is now the greatest in the world, according to a strong close on Wednesday that helped it overcome Argentina, which it trailed last week.
BusinessDay reported that the Nigerian Exchange Limited All Share Index climbed 2.38 per cent on Wednesday, reaching the 90,000 mark as bulls dominated trading.
The market is up 20.45 per cent this year, with an 8.45 per cent week-to-date rally.
Wednesday’s favourable close came as more investors bought shares of Guinness Nigeria, which saw the highest daily increase of 10%, as well as Wema Bank (+10%), Honeywell Flourmills (+10%), AIICO (+10%), and Sunu Assurances (+10%).
Nigeria plans to issue Eurobonds and receive $1.5 billion from the World Bank and the government will pay N1.6 trillion in electricity subsidies under the new NERC pricing in 2024.
These equities, along with others that had significant increase, helped the benchmark performance indicator hit a new high.
“The bulls have continued to dominate market activity this year,” according to Lagos-based Vetiva Research analysts.
They predicted price corrections on Wednesday, hoping that investors would take profits after four consecutive sessions of positive performance.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index and Market Capitalization rose further from the previous trading day’s lows of 87,970.37 points and N48.139 trillion, respectively, to 90,063.27 points and N49.280 trillion.
Other stocks that helped the market upward were BUA Foods (+5.49%), BUA Cement (+9.99%), Cadbury (+9.81), Chams (+9.71percent), Consolidated Hallmark (+8.47percent), Dangote Cement (+9.86percent), Eterna (+9.83percent), Geregu (+9.49 percent), Flour Mills (+5.10 percent), International Breweries (+9.95percent), and Japaul Gold (+8.94percent).
May & Baker also increased by 9.98 per cent, NEM Insurance (+8.70per cent), Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (+9.94per cent), PZ (+9.86per cent), Transcorp (+9.97per cent), Tripple G (+9.74per cent), and UPDC (+8.50per cent).