from OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
LAGOS, (CAJ News) – THE Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) outperformed fellow major bourses in the continent in the just-ended year.
It outdid the main rivals, in sub-Saharan Africa, namely South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Lagos-based bourse delivered a positive return of 20 percent in 2022, thanks to a stellar first half of 2022 and positive performance in the final two months of that year.
NGX’s 2022 performance compares with declines of 0.9 percent and 11,9 percent for JSE and NSE respectively.
On a month-on-month (m/mbasis, the NGX also outperformed its peers on the continent, delivering a m/m return of 7,5 percent in December 2022, compared with the 2,4 percent growth and 2,4 percent decline performance by the Nairobi and Johannesburg exchanges respectively.
Performances were broadly positive for most sectors in the NGX.
The telecommunications, palm oil and oil and gas sectors were the top performing industries.
FBN Quest noted that in terms of sector-specific drivers, a key factor behind the stellar performance of the telecoms sector was offshore investor interest in Airtel Africa due to its dual-listed status.
“The solid earnings results by MTN Nigeria also helped,” the market watcher stated.
Seplat Energy, the sole upstream oil and gas company listed on the NGX, benefited from a sharp rise in the average realized oil prices as a result of the surge in crude oil prices that lasted for most of last year.
Moving forward, FBN Quest anticipates a subdued performance from the NGX in the first quarter of 2023 as focus turns to the general elections in February.
“However, given our expectation of a recovery in H2 ’23, we continue to anticipate that the NGX will provide double-digit returns in 2023,” the market watcher stated.
– CAJ News