FirstHoldco, Dangote, four other Nigerian companies admitted to FTSE’s 50 most liquid frontier market stocks

London-based FTSE Russell, which produces and markets stock market indices globally, has included 6 Nigerian stocks among its list of 50 most liquid frontier market stocks, according to a market disclosure dated 4 September.

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FTSE Frontier 50 Index, which monitors the performance of the 50 most liquid stocks from the 26 frontier markets covered by the organisation, admitted mega-cap Nigerian stocks including First HoldCo, Dangote Cement, MTN Nigeria, Aradel Holdings, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Zenith Bank, the list seen by PREMIUM TIMES on Monday showed.

The equities opened the week on Monday with market values of ₦6.8 trillion, ₦17.4 trillion, ₦17.1 trillion, ₦6.5 trillion, ₦4.9 trillion and ₦5.3 trillion, respectively, according to market data.

Year-to-date yields on the stocks are 213 per cent, 69.8 per cent, 59.1 per cent, 122 per cent, 46.3 per cent, and 108 per cent, respectively, on the local bourse in Lagos.

Apart from liquidity, the index uses “FTSE’s country classification methodology, which assesses markets against size, basic governance and market infrastructure,” FTSE Russell stated in a factsheet on its website.

Adding the stocks to the index places them higher in importance among investors, ahead of the other 4 Nigerian equities that were approved last week, along with those 6, to join the broader FTSE Frontier Index later this month.

The 4 stocks are Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, and Presco.

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The 10 Nigerian equities will be classified under the FTSE Frontier Index’s Large Cap category.

FTSE Frontier Index had 375 constituent stocks from nations including Pakistan, Morocco, Bangladesh, and Kenya as of 31 August.

Quoting the companies on the index provides them with wider visibility among international investors than their primary listing on the Nigerian Exchange in Lagos offers.

Last month, FTSE Russell upgraded Nigeria to a frontier market from unclassified status, after the country was downgraded nearly three years ago following a sweeping foreign exchange crunch that forced the Central Bank of Nigeria to conserve dollar reserves, making it hard for international investors to recoup their investments.