Market capitalisation drops marginally by N1 billion

AS part of its efforts to offer investors new windows to diversify their portfolio, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), yesterday introduced New Gold Exchange Traded Funds to enable investors to invest directly in gold.

Speaking during the official introduction of the new product, the Associate Principal ABSA Capital, A Southern Firm (liquidity Provider to the fund) Batsile Ngomane explained that the fund which is a cross boarder one, as it is currently traded on the Johanesburg Stock Exchange and other Exchanges of the world explained that the fund is an investment vehicle traded fund on a Stock Exchange, much like shares.

According to her, most Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) are passively managed index funds, which normally track an index, adding that it provides the attraction of the returns of a traditional tracker fund like unit trust with the liquidity of a listed security.

She added that ETFs are traded at prevailing market prices, which are approximately the same price as the Net Asset Value of their underlying assets over the course of the trading day.

Meanwhile, equity transactions on the Exchange closed on a downturn, as major blue chip companies recorded price depreciation, causing market capitalisation to drop marginally by N1 billion.

With 49 companies recording price depreciation compared to 22 that constrituted the gainers chart, the All share index slide y 2.25points, from 20,257.47 recorded on Friday to 20,255.22, while market capitalisation fell by N1 billion or 0.1 per cent from N6,412 trillion to N6,411 trillion.

The banking sub-sector remained the most active stock with434million shares worth N1.7million followed by the insurance sub-sector with 21 million units worth N11 million.

Transactions in the shares of Diamond bank listed activities in the banking subsector with 311 million shares worth N908 million in 89 deals.

In all, investors traded 502 million shares worth N3 billion in 3,682 deals.

Source: The Guardian/Helen Oji