NSE Stops Trading To Arrest Surge in Share Prices

13 Nov NSE Stops Trading To Arrest Surge in Share Prices

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday halted trading at the stock market for 30 minutes to stop a sudden surge in the prices of stocks that led to a jump of over 6.2 per cent in the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) as against the set 5.0 per cent threshold.

The NSE had to use the circuit breaker to halt trading at 12.55 pm when the NSE ASI rose beyond the set threshold of 5.0.

This is the first time that the circuit breaker had been triggered since its introduction in 2016.

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

Despite the halt in trading for 30 minutes, the NSE ASI rose 6.2 per cent to close at 35,342.46, from 33,268.36 while market capitalisation gained N1.085 trillion to close higher at N18.468 trillion, up from N17.384 trillion. This implies that the market has recorded a gain of N2.261 trillion or 7.3 per cent within four trading days due to sustained high demand for stocks.

Yesterday, investors traded 1.2 billion shares worth N17. 4 billion, up by 39 per cent in volume and 92 per cent in value terms compared to 858.157 million shares valued at N9.063 billion traded the previous day.