•As Columbia, Saudi Suffer Deepest Cuts
Despite the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging the global economy resulting in lockdowns and national border closures, some equity markets have continued to put smiles on the faces of their investors, according to a report, the Top Bloomberg’s Best Performing Indexes.
The report lists the S&P Merval TR ARS, Argentina’s flagship index, which tracks the performance of the bourse’s largest and most liquid domestic stocks on the Bolsas y Mercados Argentinos Exchange (BYMA) as biggest gainer; followed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s All-Share Index; ahead of Peru’s S&P/BVL Peru General.
According to the data captured in the one month from April 7 and May 7, 2020, Argentina’s S&P Merval TR ARS chalked 35.17%; ahead of the NSEASI’s 16.39%; while Peru’s S&P/BVLPeru General) climbed 9.62% up.
The growth in NSEASI sustained the gain during the period when access to is platform was via remote trading owing to the Federal Government lockdown to check the spread of the virus. During the period also, total Market capitalization at the NSE jumped to N12.6tr as of May 7, 2020.
Others on the list of the biggest growth in equity market index during the month included the S&P/TSX Composite Index (Toronto Stock Exchange Index), which chalked 9.25%; followed by the 8.78% growth in S&P NZX All Index, the main stock market index in New Zealand. The OMX VILNIUS OMXV, the Lithuanian Stock Market index rose 8.59%; the S&P/NZX 50 index gross, which captures the 50 most capitalized stocks in New Zealand followed with 8.56%.
The Bloomberg top gaining stock exchange showed that Taiwan’s TAIEX Index improved by 8.47%; ahead of the OMX Tallinn (OMXT), the main stock market index in Estonia, which notched 8.46%; just as the Chilean stock market’s S&P/CLX IPSA index, comprising 40 stocks with the highest average annual trading volume in the Santiago Stock Exchange appreciated by 8.43%.
On the flip side, the top 10 decliners’ table was led by Colombia’s COLCAP Index, which shed 5.2%; ahead of the 5.12% fall in the Tadawul All Share Index, the Saudi Stock Exchange Index; followed by the 4.31% slip by Croatia’s Zagreb Crobex.
The Indonesia Stock Exchange’s Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) fell by 4.22%; the IBEX 35, the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain’s principal stock exchange was down 3.87% during the month.
Ghana’s Stock Exchange Compose Index lost 3.65% during the period; behind the BB All-Share index (Bahrain Bourse All Share Index), a capitalization-weighted index of all Bahraini public shareholding companies listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange; as well as the QE Index capitalisation weighted index of the 20 most highly capitalized and liquid companies traded on Qatar stock exchange.
Other equity indexes across the globe that suffered losses are: BELEX15 index, the blue-chip index of the Belgrade Stock Exchange (BELEX), compromising the 15 largest and most liquid stocks traded on the exchange; followed by the Hang Seng index of the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Analysts have identified several factors responsible for the rally on the NSE, including the oil price recovery at the international market, the gradual easing of the lockdown in several economies, and the hope of dividend payments, which has continued to attract investors to blue-chip stocks.
Sectors that have enjoyed significant attention at this time include banking, industrial, and consumer goods sectors.
This is even as trading on the NSE during the period was driven mainly by domestic institutional and retail investors, the fallout of cheap valuations amidst elevated system liquidity driven by maturities from OMO bills and low yields on fixed-income securities.