The equities market ended the year 2020 with a bang as the All Share index closed impressively at +50.03%! Major moves in heavyweights, middleweights and minors during the year contributed to this performance and most notable were; Airtel (+184%), MTNN (+61.8%) and Dangcem (+72.5%). Notwithstanding global economic challenges posed by Covid-19 induced restrictions, Nigerian equities soared on the back of excess liquidity due to low yields in the fixed income space and attractive valuations of listed the companies to post the most dominant performance in world’s equities index ranking.
The banks played second fiddle to non-banking stocks this year with a decent sectoral performance of 10.4% which was largely impeded by regulatory and policies headwinds alongside increased riskiness in lending. We expect policy pronouncements and guidance by regulators to continue to impact investor perception of the lenders in the new year.
