By Udeme Ekwere with agency report

Thursday, 28 Oct 2010

he Nigerian Stock Exchange may soon increase the limit on daily share price movement from five per cent to 10 per cent.

The Interim Administrator of the NSE, Mr. Emmanuel Ikhazoboh, who disclosed this to Reuters on Tuesday, noted that the trading hours might also be extended by two to three hours.

He said that the move was to boost liquidity, as well as attract more foriegn investments into the Exchange.

According to him, the five per cent cap on individual stock movements had drastically reduced liquidity, while a trading day, which ended at 12.30pm, shut out United States and other foreign investors.

He said, ”Within the next three weeks, I believe the case of the price cap and the number of hours of trading will be determined. Papers have been prepared, we just need the (stock exchange) council and the Securities and Exchange Commission‘s approval.”

Meanwhile, equity trading on the floor of the NSE closed positive with indicators improving marginally.

Analysts attributed the slight improvement to companies’ impressive third quarter results.

The market capitalisation of the 199 listed equities gained N7bn or 0.09 per cent from N7.961tn on Tuesday, to close at N7.968tn.

Similarly, the NSE‘s All-Share Index, which had dropped by 0.4 per cent or 92.08 points the previous day, rose by 0.09 per cent or 22.76 points from 24,973.38 to close at 24,996.14.

The NSE-30 Index also rose marginally by 0.04 per cent, from 1051.25 to 1051.66 points.

Activities in the banking sub-sector drove total volume, accounting for 70 per cent of turnover.

In the sub-sector, investors staked N2.029bn on 254.900 million shares in 3,812 deals.

Volume in the sub-sector was driven by trading in the shares of Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.

Nestle Nigeria Plc led the price gainers, rising by 3.1 per cent or N12.05 to close at N400 per share.

UACN Plc and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc gained 2.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent, to close at N30.99 and N16 per share respectively.

Lafarge WAPCO Plc, on the other hand, led on the losers‘chart, shedding 1.8 per cent or 75 kobo to close at N40.50 per share.

Source: Punch