Forte Oil Joins The Big League and What It Means To Be A “High Priced Stocks”

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) concluded its review of the prices of stocks, as part of its plans to improve liquidity and deepen the market, with the announcement of a new security that will be joining the league of High Priced Stocks. The stock announced is Forte Oil Plc.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange just included Forte Oil as the 12th stock to join the league of “High Priced Stock”. High Priced Stocks are basically stocks that trade at over N100 or more per share for four of the last six months. As such, it will only need a trade of 10,000 shares for the share price of the stock to move unlike other stocks that need up to 50,000 units to move due to their high liquidity. Here is the release from the NSE that should enlighten you more.

Head, Market Operations of The NSE, Mr. Ade Ewuosho confirmed that “way back, to move the price of any stock upwards or downwards, the brokers needed to have a volume of 50,000 shares and above. However in September 2012, The NSE introduced a pilot programme for its new market structure with the rollout of market making, where stockbrokers could move prices of some high priced stocks with 10,000 shares. These High Priced Stocks are securities that have traded an average of N100 or more per share in four out of the last six months period”.

Justifying the inclusion of Forte Oil Plc in the High Priced Stocks, the bourse’s Head of Market Surveillance, Mr. Abimbola Babalola said a review of trading activities of the company in the last six months shows that the company met the criteria set by the Exchange.

“It can be recalled that the Exchange commenced the pilot programme with nine stocks -Dangote Cement, Guinness Plc, Nestle Plc, Nigerian Breweries, SIM Capital Fund, Skye Shelter Fund, Nigerian Energy Sector Fund (NESF) and Total Plc. The Programme became permanent in 2013 and the nine initial pilot stocks remained” said Babalola.

“In April 2014, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc became the 10th stock on the programme with Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc also coming on board in the same month as the 11th stock, based on it being a new security listing that was priced above N100.00 at the time of listing on The Exchange. With this development, Forte Oil Plc has now become the 12th stock on the programme. We have observed that the prices of these High Priced Stocks have been rather stable with none falling below the N100 mark which is currently the benchmark” he added.

Stockbrokers would be able to move the prices of Forte Oil Plc, in addition to the existing High Priced Stocks, with 10,000 units with effect from July 2, 2014. Only these 12 Securities are currently set with a market trade quantity of 10,000; all the other Securities are set to 50,000.