By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Saturday announced that its Market Segmentation will become operational from Tuesday November 01 2011.

This was contained in a Statement by Wole Tokede, Seniour Manager, Corporate Communications of the NSE and made available to www.investadvocateng.com in Lagos Nigeria.

“The market segmentation of The Nigerian Stock Exchange will “go live” on Tuesday, November 1, 2011. On this date, The NSE systems and Market Reports will reflect key changes to the Markets, Boards and Industry sectors. The Exchange will also unveil new parameters for segmenting Equities by Market Capitalisation, and into growth or income stocks” the Statement said.

According to Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NSE, this development is one of the nine projects the new management has launched so far to substantiate their undertaking to make the Nigeria’s Exchange the Gateway to African Financial Markets since its inception “This is one of the nine projects we are launching this year to substantiate our undertaking to become ‘The Gateway to African Markets’” he said.

In the same vein, Yvonne Emordi, Head of Strategy at the NSE said that this step would align the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM) with that of its economy, “This is a strategic step to align our Market with Nigeria’s economic sectors, and with other industry classification standards, such as GICS, SIC and NAICS, which Global Portfolio Managers are familiar with.  We are now better positioned to drive proper allocation of assets to Nigeria” Emordi said.

The new Market segmentation configuration is also designed to create simplicity for investors.  It informs the construction of individual investment portfolios, in terms of asset allocation, providing investors the basic tools for understanding risk diversification.

The NSE affirmed in the Statement that highlights of this thorough exercise include; a move from three (3) to Two (2) Markets and rebranded Boards in both Markets; the pruning of the previous 33 sectors down to 12 Sectors, and reclassification of all listed Companies within the new sectors; as well as a standard for defining Large, Mid or Small Cap stocks, and Growth or Income stocks.

The new Market segmentation configuration is also designed to create simplicity for investors.  It informs the construction of individual investment portfolios, in terms of asset allocation, providing investors the basic tools for understanding risk diversification.