As 2013 wines up, to make way for the 2014 projections from financial experts in the Nigerian capital market, investors exhibit renewed vigor due to the positive performance of traded equities at the floor of the Exchange this year.

Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) made an appreciable impact in 2013 compared to 2012 as all market indicators rose with definable gains as at Friday, December 27, 2013.

At the close of transactions on the last Friday of the year, investors traded a total of 377.01 millions shares as against 150.58 million shares that opened transactions in January 2013.

The value of shares closed at N2.4 billion as against N1.73 billion which opened the year’s transaction at the floor of the Exchange.

All-share index also closed at 40,231.68 points, compared to 28,078.81 points that opened the year making a gain of 12,152.80 points or 43 per cent. Market capitalisation which opened January at N8.98 trillion gained N3.9 trillion to closed positively at N12.88 trillion as at Friday 27th December, 2013.

In a presentation by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr Oscar Onyema, at the capital market stakeholders forum in November, he said.

“We have undertaken major reviews of our market and operations and implemented innovations required to deliver a robust and efficient capital market.

“We have also successfully delivered on key strategic initiatives to create an African institution that competes effectively in the global market place”.

According to the paper titled “Ten Years of Sanitising the Capital Market and Bringing Justice to the Doorstep of the People”, Onyema noted that Nigerian Stock Market ended the first half of the year on a positive note, returning 28.8 per cent gain in overall market performance as the All Share Index(ASI) closed at 36,164.31 points. It is about 80 per cent higher than the previous year’s level.

The index also had crossed the 40,000 points market target before retreating as capitalisation was maximum at N12.84 trillion surpassing the previous year before also retreating later to N11.61 trillion.

Market value was singularly enhanced by the listing of Dangote Cement which accounts for 25 per cent of total market capitalisation.

According to the market analysis, daily transaction in the half year is 475 million shares, compared to 360 million shares, average daily transaction recorded in the entire 2012 period.

In Daily Sun publication of December 30,2013 titled “NSE makes World’s top 10″, the review recorded that it is the appreciable performance of the stock market that placed the country’s capital market among the top 10 performing stock exchanges in the world. This performance was made possible by various factors.

According to the review, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in an effort to strengthen the nations capital market, during the third quarter capital market committee meeting in Lagos, set up three committees to develop 10-year master plans to revamp the capital market.

The committees include: capital market master plan, Non Interest capital Market Product Master plan and the capital market literacy master plan.

The terms of reference of the capital market master plan committee was to review the implementation progress of the capital market towards making world class potential a reality and outline milestones yet unachieved.

It was also charged to consider relevant factors that impacted market growth and develop a strategy for robust governance for improved efficiency and enhancement of market stability, among others.

The Director General of SEC, Ms. Arunma Oteh on December 19 released a new minimum capital requirement for market operators. The new capital, with deadline pegged on December 2014, expects market operators to recapitalise.

According to SEC release, broker/dealer now requires a minimum capital of N300 million or an increase of 328.57 per cent compared to the initial capital of N70 million.

By the new capitalisation strategy, a broker now requires to increase its capital to N200 million from N40 million as dealers’ minimum capital stands at N100 million as against N30 million.

Issuing house operational capital also increased to N200 million from N150 million, as underwriter now operates with  N200 million as a working capital compared to N100 million.

Punch Online market review showed that investors in 13 companies in the capital market made over 100 per cent gains in 2013. The companies include Presco Plc, Livestock Feeds Plc, Transcorp Plc, Champion Breweries Plc, Jos International Breweries Plc and Union Dicon Salt Plc.

Others are:  Cadbury Nig Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Evans Medical Plc, Fidson Healthcare Plc, Conoil Plc, Forte Oil Plc and Mrs Oil Nigeria Plc.

The stock review showed that Forte Oil Plc returned the highest capital gain of 1,301 per cent. The equity opened the year at about N7 and soared to over N100 last Tuesday on renewed demand by investors.

The oil product firm, according to Punch analysis, attracted high demand from investors who are impressed with its recovery from losses and future potential, positing a growth of 306 per cent in profit after tax for the nine months which ended September 30,2013, rising from N656 million in 2012 to N2. 669 billion.

The Forte Oil performance was attributed to clear focus on business transformation initiative, according to the Chief Executive of the company, Mr. Akin Akinfemiwa.

Transcorp Plc followed with 327 per cent gain, while Champion Breweries Plc made 307 per cent gains to square up.

The Exchange also in October announce the commencement of trading on the X-Gen Platform. The rollout of the X-Gen, adjudged as the potentially fastest trading platform, is historic milestone for the capital market community to reinforce the nation’s position as a regional financial centre.

This achievement serves as one of the key target of the Exchange in providing the 21st century technologies to support the growth of the Nigerian capital market.

However, operators and stakeholders in the financial market have raised fresh alarm over the continuous retention of Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 12 per cent by the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) led by Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, saying that it would affect quoted companies performance and capital market indices.

The Finance and Insurance sub-sector comprises banking insurance pension and stock-broking firms. These firms operate in the various segments of the financial markets such as money market, capital market and the foreign exchange market.

This sector plays prominent role in ensuring an efficient financial intermediation in the economy.

Despite the challenges faced by this sector during the global financial crisis which resulted to the establishment of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), the financial sector regulatory authorities, “Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has continued to improve and introduced new policies that had gone a long way in bringing financial stability in the sector, as well as ensuring proper financial professionalism, reducing waste and increasing clients confidence.

The financial sector recorded a growth of 3.61 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 as against the 3.57 per cent recorded same period in 2012.

The increased growth of the sector was traceable to increased activities in the sector driven by increased lending activities by banks, as well as continued favourable investment yields in bond market which has favoured key players in the industry, especially pension managers, banks and insurance firms. It has also attracted foreign portfolio investors into the economy.

Before now, the pension funds administration regime was one major channel through which public funds running into hundreds of billions of naira are misappropriated by corrupt officials, through embezzlement, falsification of records, ghost pensioners and denial of pensioners their due entitlement.

The Presidential Pension Reform Task Team Investigation and work resulted in the deletion of over 73,000 ghost pensioners stoppage of a monthly theft of over N4 billion from the national treasury, saving of a monthly sum of over N1 billion from police monthly pension releases.

On internally generated revenue a new accounting model known as the International Financial Reporting System (IFRS) has become operational in Nigeria with its attendant tax implications.

The federal Inland  Revenue Service, CITN, ANAN ad ICAN, among other entities organised series of workshops, seminars and mandatory training programme to enlighten accountants on the new concept in order to ensure that Nigeria is not left out in global accounting best practices.

Although appreciable achievements have been made in the capital financial markets in 2013, more need to be done on the depth of the capital market, in order to totally restore investors’ confidence.

Hamonised taxation system across all the three tiers of government should also be looked into which will enable small and medium enterprises increase their profit margin and move towards listing on the floor of the Exchange in 2014.

For Nigerian investors, 2013 was a good year at the capital market and there is also a renewed vigour and positional in 2014 when NSE and SEC will role out more implementations to exceed the World’s top 10 position it has achieved in 2013.