Stories by Chinenye Anuforo
The bearish run of Nigerian equities market came to a halt yesterday as trading in the shares of Dangote Cement, Guaranty Trust Bank and Nigerian Breweries bolstered activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. This then lifted the All Share Index by 2.2 per cent to close at 25,129.27 points while YTD loss stands at 6.5 per cent. Market capitalisation also gained N189.4billion to settle at N8.7 trillion.
Furthermore, activity level strengthened as volume and value of traded securities rose 68 per cent and 76.3 per cent to 215.4 million shares and N2.6 billion respectively.
Performance across sectors was broadly positive as all indices appreciated, besides the Insurance index which fell 0.1 per cent on the back of losses in AIICO.
The Industrial Goods index lifted sector gainers, up 2.3 per cent on account of bargain hunting in Dangote Cement while the Banking and Consumer Goods indices rose 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent to trail performance following gains in GTB and NB respectively. The Oil & Gas index closed 7bps northwards.
Meanwhile, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) will host a half-day symposium to celebrate the 2017 International Women’s Day. The free to attend symposium themed “Transcending Gender Limitations”, will take place today, at the Stock Exchange House, Lagos.
For the third consecutive year, NSE is organising the International Women’s Day symposium with the aim to celebrate the social and economic achievements of women in many spheres of life and will discuss avenues to accelerate gender parity. Attendees at the event are drawn from corporate, educational, government and non-governmental sectors.
The symposium being organised in partnership with Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, United Nations Women, United Nations Global Compact, International Finance Corporation, the World Federation of Exchanges and Women in ETFs, will be headlined by the first female Professor of History in Nigeria and author of “Nigerian Women Pioneers & Icons”, Professor Bolanle Awe, OFR.
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NSE, Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, OON, promoting gender equality and empowering women is a priority for the Exchange. “At the NSE, we promote a working environment that is inclusive for all as we believe that achieving gender equality is paramount to developing the society. We have a female to male employees’ ratio of 1:2 and we are working towards improving the number. We are proud to host this symposium that allows us every year to bear witness to an exchange of stimulating stories of women’s achievements as well as celebrate what women can do and what women have done.”