The shares of companies in the category of Fast Moving Consumer Goods, FMCG, listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, are presently over priced, said the Managing Director/CEO, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, FDC.

He made the remark while presenting a paper, “2014- The Year of Gathering Storm”, at the December edition of Lagos Business School Breakfast meeting.

Some of the consumer goods stocks on the official list of the NSE include: UACN, which closed transaction as at Thursday, December 5, 2013 at N63.75 per share. Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc trades N91.80; Northern Nigeria Flour Mill, NNFM, N24.37; Cadbury Nigeria Plc, N62.30 per share; PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, N37.50; Unilever, N60.56; and Nestle Nigeria Plc with the highest share price of N1,200 per share.

Some others are Dangote Flourmill, N9.35; Dangote Sugar, N11.07; UTC, N0.67; and Honeywell Flourmuill, which trades at N3.02 per share.

Giving further breakdown, he said that consumer goods dominated activity on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, accounting for over 31 percent of total transaction in the market, followed closely by the financial services sector, which account for about 30 percent of market capitalisation, while the industrial goods sector has a significant weighting in the NSE led by Dangote Cement.

According to him, at a price/earning ration of 13.60 percent, the Nigerian capital market has the propensity of attracting more foreign investors’ patronage, as it is cheaper relative to other regional and international markets.

Presently, the price earning ratio of S&P 500 (USA) stands at 16.91 percent; Nairobi securities Exchange, NSE, (Nairobi) stands at 14.75 percent, while that of Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JES, stands at 19.26 percent.

He affirmed that the rally recorded so far in the equities market will continue into the first quarter of 2014 ‘before the fizzle of the sizzle.’

The FDC boss also stated that the market is gradually striking a balance in transaction, as it almost evenly distributed between domestic and foreign investors.

He noted that foreign portfolio investments, FPI, transactions accounted for 52.3 percent of total transactions in August. It stood at 36.9 percent in January and peaked at 64.48 percent in April.

Globally, he said that the equities market have shown significant growth, since their quarter one (Q1) 2009 trough with the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s All share Index,  NSE ASI, increasing by 96 percent from 2009 quarter one low.

“The NSE ASI has increased 38.6 percent for the year. Now at 38,920.85 basis points compared with 28,078.81 basis points at the end of 2012, the bourse grew 6.38 percent quarter-to-date, QTD.

“Some have reached all-time highs. Dow Jones breaches 16,000 reaching an all-time high in 2013; S&P 500 also increases to pass the 1,800 mark for the first time; The MSCI Frontier markets index has increased 18.86 percent year-to-date; FTSE 100 approached pre-crisis level of 6730.71 in 2013,” he explained.

He, however, said that the market is yet to recover from the 2008 crash, adding that it needs to increase by further 60 percent to realise its pre-crash peak.