By Richard ABANGWU InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Wednesday announced that the number of Market Making Stocks on its Bourse has hit 52.
This is contained in a Press Release from the NSE and made available to InvestAdvocate in Lagos Nigeria.
To make the list 52, the NSE announced the addition of four (4) new stocks to the market making programme. The new additions are: Portland Paints & Products Nigeria Plc; ABC Transport Plc; Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc and Stanbic IBTC Holdings.
According to the NSE, the inclusion of the stocks from Industrial Goods; Services; Healthcare and Financial Service sectors becomes effective on Thursday, March 14, 2013. “The addition of the new stocks is in line with the planned phased approach for introducing stocks to the programme, from the baskets allocated to the Market Makers on The Exchange†the NSE said.
Market Makers commenced operations on the Nigeria’s Exchange September 18 2012 with 16 stocks in their baskets.
Market Makers play a central role in the provision of two-way quotes (comprising of buy and sell prices) for the Securities that they are making Markets on. Leveraging the Securities Lending process, Market Makers will be able to borrow Securities in order to settle ‘buy order imbalances’ from customers. A ‘hybrid’ Market, allowing both Market Makers to provide two way quotes and licensed Broker/Dealers of The Exchange to submit orders as is currently done.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Bourse announced the names of the Market Makers on the Trading Floor of the NSE in the Second Quarter (Q2) of year 2012 following a rigorous selection process, where the unveiling of the ten (10) Broker/Dealer Firms selected as Market Makers was described by Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigeria’s Exchange as a major landmark in enhancing the liquidity and depth of the second largest Market in sub-Saharan Africa.
