The three biggest companies listed on the nation’s stock exchange gained a total of N1.15tn last year, data obtained from the Nigerian Exchange Limited have shown.
The companies, namely Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Airtel Africa Plc, accounted for 53.72 per cent of the market capitalisation of equities on the NGX as of the end of December.
An analysis of data obtained from the NGX showed that the five biggest listed companies boosted their combined market capitalisation by N520bn in April to N14.51tn.
The market capitalisation of all the 157 companies listed on the NGX stood at N22.30tn as of December 31, 2021, compared to N21.06tn at the end of 2020.
Dangote Cement, the country’s biggest listed company, saw its market cap grow to N4.38tn at the end of last year from N4.17tn on December 31, 2020.
MTN Nigeria boosted its market value to N4.01tn on December 31, 2021 from N3.46tn a year earlier while that of Airtel Africa rose to N3.59tn from N3.20tn.
BUA Cement Plc and Nestle Nigeria Plc were the fourth and fifth biggest companies on the stock exchange as of December 31, 2021.
BUA Cement saw its market cap drop to N2.27tn at the end of 2021 from N2.62tn a year earlier, while that of Nestle rose to N1.23tn from N1.19tn.
The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said recently that the profit-taking activities of foreign and domestic institutional investors in the Nigerian stock market had created an excessive risk premium.
He said to usher in the return of foreign and domestic institutional participation, all government agencies and regulators in the financial system, among other key stakeholders, must work with the NGX to tackle the excessive risk premium within the market.
– Punch