The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday included MTN Communications Nigeria Plc, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) Plc and FCMB Group Plc in the list of the 30 biggest stocks at the Exchange. The three companies made the NSE 30 Index, which tracks the 30 largest companies at the stock market.
The inclusion of the three companies saw the exit of the trio of Forte Oil Plc, Oando Plc and PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc.
The NSE stated that it had reviewed its NSE-30 Index and 12 other sectoral indices, including NSE Consumer Goods, NSE Banking, NSE Insurance, NSE Industrial, NSE Oil & Gas, NSE Pension, NSE Lotus Islamic and NSE Corporate Governance Indices.
The composition of the new indices took effect on Thursday, January 02, 2019, after the completion of the year-end review and index rebalancing exercise which saw the entry of some major companies and the exit of others from the various indices.
According to NSE, three indices-NSE Consumer Goods Index, NSE Banking Index and NSE Oil and Gas Index, did not witness any change.
MTN also displaced GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria from the NSE Pension Index and the NSE Lotus Islamic Index while the telco giant was also added to the NSE Corporate Governance Index. Forte Oil was also added to the NSE Lotus Islamic Index while CAP and Presco were removed from the index. The NSE Lotus Islamic Index tracks Sharia’a compliant stocks in terms of business operation and financial structure.
Also, the NSE Insurance Index now included Cornerstone Insurance Plc and Sunu Assurances while Veritas Kapital Assurance and Continental reinsurance were removed. Premier Paints replaced Notore Chemical Industries in the NSE Industrial Goods Index.
The indices, which were developed using the market capitalization methodology, are usually rebalanced on a biannual basis, the first business day in January and in July. The stocks are selected based on market capitalization and liquidity. The liquidity is based on the number of days the stock is traded during the preceding two quarters. To be included in the index, the stock must have traded for at least 70 percent of the number of trading days in the preceding two quarters.
The NSE began publishing the NSE 30 Index in February 2009 with index values available from January 1, 2007. On July 1, 2008, The NSE developed four sectoral indices and one index in 2013, with a base value of 1,000 points, designed to provide investable benchmarks to capture the performance of specific sectors. The Insurance and Consumer Goods sector index, comprises the 15 most capitalized and liquid companies; Banking and Industrial Goods sector index, comprised of 10 most capitalized and liquid companies, while the Oil & Gas sector index, is composed of the seven most capitalized and liquid companies.
