Despite the financial crisis that is rocking the nation’s capital market, the house of representative last week threw out a motion calling on the federal government to intervene in the capital market. 

VIEWED from whatever perspective, the year 2009 could best be described as a transitional one for the exchange with investors still cautiously trading - thanks to the impact of the global financial melt-down on the market that has brought down the value of the market. Today most of the stocks listed on the exchange can be described as “penny stocks” as most of them are trading far below their intrinsic value.
Strangely, despite their sinking values, the companies have been declaring huge and appetising bonuses and dividends. This is what separates the Nigerian Stock Exchange from other markets. The fundamentals still are very strong.

IN further appreciation of the efforts by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to create products that will take the capital market to the global audience, the NSE has been approached by Bloomberg to co-brand all the newly-created indices, NSE-30 and the 4 sector indices.

FIRST Bank of Nigeria Plc recorded an increase in market capitalisation of 0.4 per cent from N406.1 billion to N407.54 billion to retain the status of the most capitalized listed equity.

FOR the Nigerian capital market, the year 2009 is one that would be remembered for a long time to come and the lessons learnt indelible. The year started out on a sour note as the full impact of the global financial crisis hit the Nigerian economy. The initial argument made in 2008 that the Nigerian economy was largely insulated from the global economic crisis was proved wrong.

THE Securities and Exchange Commission(Sec) has said that it is making plans to reintroduce the recapitalization exercise for capital market operators, but would rather commence it this year.

GUARANTY Trust Bank Plc has announced the completion of its first tranche of the five-year bond issue of N13.165 billion Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Bonds due 2014.

TO reposition itself for the challenges in the oil servicing industry in 2010, Geo-Fluids Nigeria Plc has concluded plans to boosts its working capital by N2 billion through the issuance of bond, equities and rights issue from shareholders.