By Dipo Olowookere
Five companies trading their shares on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have exited the Afrinvest Dividend Yield Index.
The Afrinvest Div Yield Index is one of the indices developed to allow investors to follow market movements and properly manage investment portfolios.
They were designed using the market capitalisation methodology and are rebalanced on a semi-annual basis on the first business day in January and in July.
On Monday, January 4, 2021, the new review became effective and from the notice from the NSE obtained by Business Post, AIICO Insurance, Dangote Sugar, FCMB, United Capital and Africa Prudential have all exited the Afrinvest Div Yield Index with no stock added to the category.
For the Meristem Growth Index, the exchange removed BUA Cement, GlaxoSmithKline, Okomu Oil and Wema Bank and then added Access Bank, Cadbury Nigeria, GTBank and Julius Berger to the cadre.
On the Meristem Value Index, Dangote Sugar and Total were added, while the quartet of Cadbury Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Fidelity Bank and UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) were removed from the index.
The NSE 30 Index witnessed the removal of Julius Berger and the addition of Transcorp, while the NSE Insurance Index saw the exit of Niger Insurance and the entry of Veritas Kapital Assurance and African Alliance Insurance.
Also, Eterna was put in the NSE Oil/Gas Index with MRS Oil Nigeria removed, while the NSE Lotus Islamic Index only witnessed the removal of PZ Cussons Nigeria.
However, the NSE Consumer Goods Index, NSE Banking Index, NSE Industrial Goods Index, NSE Pension Index, Corporate Governance Index and Afrinvest Bank Value Index remained unchanged.
On July 1, 2008, the NSE developed five sectoral indices with a base value of 1,000 points, designed to provide investable benchmarks to capture the performance of specific sectors.
The sectoral indices comprise the top 15 most capitalised and liquid companies in the insurance and consumer goods sectors; the top 10 most capitalised and liquid companies in the banking and industrial goods sectors; and the top seven most capitalised and liquid companies in the oil /gas sector.
In July 2012, the NSE Lotus Islamic Index (NSE LII) was launched. The index consists of companies whose business practices are in conformity with Shari’ah Investment Principles.
The aim of this was to increase the breadth of the market and create an important benchmark for investments as the alternative ethical and non-interest investment space.
The companies that appear on the Islamic index have been thoroughly screened by Lotus Capital Halal Investment, in accordance with a methodology approved by an internationally recognised Shari’ah Advisory Board comprising of renowned Islamic scholars.
Adedapo Adesanya