The Nigerian Stock Exchange has introduced an Industrial Index into its Daily Official List.
The Industrial index measures the performance of the top 10 performing stocks in the industrial sub-sector of the equities market.
In a statement on its website on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Officer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, said the introduction of the index was part of the key initiatives of the Exchange to drive optimisation.
Presently, the industrial goods sector consists of four sub-sectors with 27 companies listed in the sector, contributing about 28 per cent of the total market capitalisation.
Onyema said that the sector has not been able to contribute its quota effectively to the nation’s GDP due to poor infrastructures, influx of sub-standard goods and proliferations of smuggled products.
Others, he said, were unfavourable import tariffs, inconsistent government policies; all of which he noted as hindering the desired growth in the industrial sector.
According to Onyema, the new NSE Industrial Index is made of 10 companies selected from a total of 27 companies listed in the sector.
He added that the selection was based on the market capitalisation of the companies involved as well as their liquidity.
He listed the 10 companies selected as foundation members of the index as Ashaka Cement Plc, Nigerian Bag Manufacturing Company Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc and Chemical and Allied Products Plc.
Others are Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc, Berger Paints Plc, Cutix Plc, DN Meyer Plc and Portland Paints & Products Nigeria Plc.
Meanwhile, equity trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange continued on a negative note on Thursday, with major indicators closing even lower.
The market capitalisation of the listed equities fell by N77bn or 0.7 per cent to close at N10.698tn, down from N10.775tn recorded on Wednesday.
Also, the NSE’s All-Share Index lost 198.82 basis points or 0.6 per cent from 33,665.58 points on Wednesday, to 33,466.76 points.