Investors gain N1.09tn in one day as Nigerian stocks soar

Investors in the Nigerian stock market gained N1.09 trillion at the end of trading on Thursday as the benchmark index crossed the threshold of five percent.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index rose by 6.2 percent to close at 35,342.46 basis points from 33,268.36bps on Wednesday while the market capitalisation of equities jumped to N18.47 trillion from N17.38 trillion.

The NSE announced that a market-wide circuit breaker kicked in Thursday at 12:55p.m, when the ASI rose beyond the set threshold of five percent, triggering a 30-minute trading halt of all stocks.

This was the first time that the circuit breaker had kicked in since its introduction in 2016, the bourse said in a statement.

It said the circuit breaker protocol was triggered by the increase of the NSE ASI from 33,268.36 to 34,959.39.

The market reopened at exactly 1:25pm with a 10-minute intraday auction session, before resuming continuous trading till the close of the day at 2:30p.m.

The NSE said during the halt of trading, no order could be placed until trading resumed.

“However, existing orders could be withdrawn or canceled​ but could not be modified. Trading halts did not affect the clearing, settlement, and depository operations for matched trades, as these functioned as normal,” it added.

According to the NSE, all existing orders keyed in prior to the trading halt were re-activated and were matched upon resumption of trading. ​​