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NSE plans to trade naira future as market opens positively

By on June 24, 2015

Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema  has said the Exchange  plans to start trading naira futures that will help investors hedge against movements in the local currency.

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg in London on Monday, Onyema said: “It would be awesome if we had a naira-dollar contract that we could trade on the exchange. Futures and options are asset classes that we think would be very beneficial to foreign investors.”

According to him, the bourse might offer futures by the end of 2017. He added that pans for this year include a “premium board for large-cap securities that meet the highest corporate governance standards and Nigerian depositary receipt programme, which will allow local investors to access foreign-listed companies on the domestic market.”

He disclosed that there is very rich pipeline  of companies that may start trading their shares this year depending on market conditions, including businesses that could list securities in London and Lagos.

“We are  seeing interest in initial public offerings and secondary listings from oil and gas, fast-moving consumer goods, telecommunication and industrial-goods companies abroad. Dual listing will be part of the pitch,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian equities  market  started the week on a positive  to end four days of losses. The NSE All-Share Index rose by 0.38 per cent to close at 33,384.59, while market capitalisation  increased N43.25 billion to close at N11.40 trillion.

The gain was recorded on the back of appreciation in the prices of blue chip companies from the banking and consumer goods categories. The gain reduced the Year-to-Date loss to 3.67 per cent.

Four of the NSE sectoral indices appreciated while only one declined.

The Consumer Goods index led  with a 0.72 per cent  increase while the Industrial Goods index followed with a 0.69 per cent. gain.  The NSE Banking and NSE Insurance indices went up by 0.60 per cent  and 0.27 per cent in that only. Only the NSE  Oil/Gas index declined by 0.18 per cent.

In all 28 stocks appreciated against 21 decliners. Diamond Bank led the gainers with 5.46 per cent. Presco Plc, International BreweriesPlc, AIICO Insurance Plc and Transnational Express Plc went up by 5.0 per cent, 4.9 per cent,  4.3 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively.

 

[ThisDay]