The Interim President and Council Chairman of the Nigeri a Stock Exchange(NSE), Ballama Manu, has expressed optimism that the capital mar k et is on the path of full recovery after months of downturns occasioned by the r e cent global economic meltdown.
â?Despite numerous challenges, our quoted companies continued to record impress ive performances,â? Manu told shareholders on Tuesday during the 49th Annual Gen eral Meeting (AGM) of NSE in Lagos.
â?Four companies were admitted to the Daily Official List while there were 32 s upplementary/ capitalization issues between January and October 2010, arising fr o m scrip issues, rights issues, placing and debt-equity convention by quoted comp a nies,â? the Interim President added.
The four new listing are Union Homes Real Estate Investment Trust Plc, Dangote C ement Plc, Multi-Trex Integrated Foods Plc and Paints and Manufacturers Nigeria P lc.
On the day Dangote Cement Plc was admitted, it accounted for 26.3% of the 7.96 t rillion naira equity market capitalization. Consequently, the listing brought a s ignificant change in the contribution of each sector to the market capitalizatio n .
According to Manu market capitalization, which opened at 7.03 trillion naira, ap preciated to 10.1 trillion naira on October 29, 2010, due to the impact of the n e w listings (equities and bonds) and price appreciations.
The NSE Interim Council came into existence following the action taking by the S ecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the capital market apex regulatory body . This intervention saw the exit of the former NSE Director General, Ndi Okereke- O nyiuke and the removal of the Council President, Billionaire businessman, Aliko D angote.
The SEC intervention arose largely from unwholesome frictions at both management and council levels of the NSE.
Subsequently the regulatory body appointed Emmanuel Ikazoboh as the interim Admi nistrator and Manu as interim President in August, 2010.
But some council members and former Director General went to court to challenge their removal.
The stock market benefited from the policy pronouncements of the regulatory auth orities. This made it possible past losses in previous years to be recouped duri n g the year 2010.
The combination of weak performance by the banking sector, low liquidity in the economy, profit taking and capital flight eroded the strong position the stock m a rket achieved during the first quarter of this year.
