The Nigerian Stock Exchange reported Tuesday that it has seen unprecedented growth in its trading turnover.
Over the past week, the NSE’s number of ordinary shares traded on its platform jumped 338.18 million ordinary shares. Having reported a trading turnover of 604.92 million ordinary shares worth N8.56 billion last week, the NSE says its turnover for this week was 943.1 million ordinary shares valued at N11.2 billion.
The NSE says the surge in equity trading turnover was fueled by its banking subsector. The banking subsector accounted for the trading of 755.25 million ordinary shares which had a total value N7.36 billion. Over 50% of those trades came from only two banks: Intercontinental Bank Plc and Diamond Bank Plc. Trades on the shares of these two banks accounted for the trading of 377.7 million shares.
The exchange’s total market capitalization grew by more than N20 billion or 0.6%. The NSE’s price increase comes as a result of highly capitalized companies, it says. Topping the list of price gainers’ was Guinness Nigeria Plc which rose N5.87 and closed at N125.87 per share.
The NSE also saw an influx of foreign trading over the past month, it says, increasing by 18.6% or over $1.44 billion. The inflow and outflow that passed through the Central Bank of Nigeria during July hit $2.68 billion and $1.44 billion, respectively.