Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed the year 2022 on a positive note despite the myriad of challenges in the economic landscape of the country, ranging from a rise in the inflation rate to a hike in the interest rate, among others.

At the close of the year’s trading activities on Friday, December 30, at exactly 12:30 pm, the nation’s equities market finished the year 2022 on a bullish run as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI( appreciated by 19.98 percent with 51.251.06 index points.

Amidst, investor’s increased buying pressure, especially on blue-chip stocks, the market capitalization added N5.619 trillion to settle at N27.915 trillion on 30th December as against the year opening of N22.296 trillion.

With a 19.99 percent increase in the return on investment the local bourse, the NGX was rated the 4th best performing in the world, according to the MSCI All-Country World Index (ACWI), which tracks the performance of roughly 3000 stocks in 48 developed and emerging market countries.

In terms of return on investment, the Nigerian equity bourse had in the past three years posted positive returns, the biggest being in 2020, when it yielded over 50 percent as the best-performing stock index in the world, according to Bloomberg ranking.

On the last trading day of the year, the CEO of Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, Temi Popoola spoke about the Exchange’s impressive year, despite facing global macroeconomic challenges and volatility.

According to him, it has been a fantastic year for NGX, with a positive 19.98 percent return. We have also seen several landmark listings in equity and fixed income, including BUA Foods and Geregu Power, which have played a key role in driving growth in the market this year.

Sectorial analyses indicated that the NGX Oil and Gas index was the best performer gaining 34.60 percent, the streak is unconnected to the gains in Geregu stocks which was listed on the local bourse in November, 2022.

The NGX Industrial followed with a gain of +19.67 per cent, while the NSE 30 Index which comprises the most capitalised stocks ended the year with a single-digit return of 6.98 per cent. The Pension index also did well during the year with a return of 10.37 per cent.

However, the Banking and Insurance index reported 2.81 percent and -11.99 percent, respectively depicting the challenges of the financial services sector.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released security features to help identify fake new naira notes.

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