The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NSE

  • NSE introduces guidelines for online stock trading

    A mid increasing number of stockbroking firms offering personalised online trading to individual investors, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has issued a seven-point guideline on the operations of online stock trading by individual investors.

    In a circular dated June 1, 2015 and obtained by The Nation, the NSE noted that the launch of its new trading engine, otherwise known as X-Gen, in 2013 has resulted in the creation of online trading portals by stockbrokers. This provided the investing public with the opportunity to place orders for securities listed on the Exchange via the Order Management Systems (OMS) of dealing members from any location in real time.

    The Exchange stated that dealing members that operate online trading portals must adhere to a seven-point guideline and all other extant laws and rules and regulations guding the operations of the stock market.

    According to the guidelines, dealing members that intend to set up online trading portals shall implement and set up X-Net connectivity and an Order Management System (OMS) that is certified by the Exchange.

    Also, no dealing member shall operate an online trading portal without subjecting the online portal to regular penetration tests, which shall be no less than twice a year with a reputable firm. The dealing member shall submit to the Exchange the certified Penetration Testing Reports from a credible Information Security company that the online portal platform is secured for usage.

    The Exchange said it would also carry out independent routine spot checks to validate the Penetration Testing Reports on an annual basis and the dealers must be able to rectify any identified issues promptly.

    “All trading activities on the portal must be duly monitored and supervised by an Authorised Clerk employed by the dealing member. Any trading errors or anomalies shall be duly and promptly reported to the Exchange in line with the Exchange’s Error Trade rules,” the guideline stated.

    Besides, any dealing member that intends to operate an online trading portal is required to carry out a comprehensive “Know Your Client” (KYC) requirement on all clients registered through the online trading portal before an online trading account is activated, or any transaction is carried out by investors on the portal. The dealing member will also have to keep the records of the (KYC) and transactions for a minimum period of six years, or as may be amended from time to time.

    Stockbrokers are also expected to disclose on its trading portal and account opening forms the risks associated with using the portal in addition to compliance with the Exchange’s rules and regulations including those on communications, advertisement and publication.

    According to the circular, applications used by clients to access the OMS system shall be protected with strong passwords, strong authentication in line with industry standards, optimised for performance and regular security testing.

    The Exchange indicated that it may review the operations, guidelines and rules and regulations relating to the online stock trading as the new trading mechanism evolves.

    Investment One Stockbrokers International Limited recently launched a high-end trading portal, which offers on-line, real time trading on the NSE to savvy investors.

    The on-line portal known as ‘Easy Trade’ allows investors to buy and sell stocks directly on the NSE in addition to access to real time market data and back-up research and analyses. The sign-on fee is a one-off payment of N1, 000 while investors can open account and trade with any amount. Investment One Stockbrokers International Limited is a fully owned subsidiary of Investment One Financial Services Limited.

  • NSE to sanction 40 firms over delayed results

    NSE to sanction 40 firms over delayed results

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may sanction at least 40 companies over their failure to meet the extended deadline for the submission of their audited reports and accounts for the immediate past business year. The 30-day extension of the deadline for the submission of the audited annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar year expired  on April 30.

    Following an exclusive report by The Nation that more than two-thirds of quoted companies have not submitted their audited reports at the expiration of the initial regular deadline of March 31,  the NSE had extended the March 31 deadline by one month. With these companies that operate the Gregorian calendar year as their business year had up till April 30 to submit their full-year audited reports and accounts.

    The Nation’s check yesterday indicated that some 40 companies have not submitted their earnings reports and now are liable for sanctions by the Exchange. The NSE usually applies both the “naming and shaming” and monetary sanctions on earnings defaulters.

    A report on sanctions and fines for similar defaults in 2013 showed that the Exchange slammed about N105.9 million on 48 companies that delayed their results. The fines ranged between N200, 000 and N6.8 million. The NSE had slammed some N60.2 million as fines on 34 companies for failure to meet deadlines for 2011 audited reports. With a range of N3.8 million and N100, 000, average fine for the year was N1.77 million.

    While compliance within deadline is generally regarded as a measure of good corporate governance, NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline.

    Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These include below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorized publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

    Some of the companies that may be sanctioned for the 2014 earnings reports included Daar Communications Plc, Juli Plc, Fortis Microfinance Bank, UTC Nigeria, Ellah Lakes, RT Briscoe (Nigeria), Lennards, Beco Petroleum FTN Cocoa Processors, Japaul Oil and Maritimes Services and Multiverse Nigeria Plc.

    Others included Nigerian Ropes, Omatek, Aso Savings and Loans, Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank, Austin Laz and Company, Oando, Conoil, Premier Paints, IPWA and Africa Paints Plc.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their earnings reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.

    NSE’s regulatory filing calendar had indicated that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year was Tuesday March 31. They were also expected to submit their first quarter report on or before June 30,. These deadlines were, however, extended to April 30 and July 30, respectively.

    The NSE had stated that the extension was due to some challenges created by shift in the date of national elections from February 14 to March 28 and the layers of regulations for some audited reports.

    According to the NSE, the change in the election calendar also disrupted the meeting calendar and auditing process of some listed companies while some were not able to obtain the prior approval of their primary regulators.

    “While we believe that the timely disclosure of financial information is critical to stakeholders in the capital market, particularly the investing public, the challenges which the listed entities are facing are germane,” NSE stated in a statement signed by Josephine Igbinosun, head of listings regulation department.

  • UBA lists N30.5b bond on NSE, FMDQ

    UBA lists N30.5b bond on NSE, FMDQ

    United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc yesterday listed its recent N30.5 billion bond issue on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the FMDQ OTC Plc, a dual listing that should ensure that investors in the bond have multiple opportunities to trade on their investments. FMDQ is an over-the-counter (OTC) market for fixed-income and currency securities.

    The listing on the NSE provides opportunity for retail investors to take advantage of the fixed return on the investment grade notes through the primary market while the FMDQ will provide a secondary market platform for institutional and foreign investors to trade the UBA bond.  The UBA bond is the first corporate bond to be admitted on the FMDQ platform and the first of its kind on a fixed income OTC in Africa.

    UBA, in December 2014, successfully raised N30.5 billion Tier-II capital through the issuance of seven-year fixed rate unsecured notes, maturing in 2021.

    Group managing director, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, noted that the listing of the bond on the FMDQ was another milestone for the bank pointing out that it had floated the first initial public offering on the NSE.

    “We were the first Nigerian bank to do an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) after successfully listing in 1971. We were also the first to issue Global Depository Receipts (GDR) in 1998. We are always willing to explore new frontiers in our quest to have an efficient market that meets our developmental needs,” Oduoza said.

    According to him, the banking group will utilize the proceeds of the bond issue for long term commercial and retail sector lending as well as the expansion of its delivery channels to provide efficient banking services to customers.

    He reiterated that the bank is committed to building a long term and sustainable business and assured that it will ensure proper utilization of the bond issue to grow its market share and profitability while ensuring a robust risk management framework and strong corporate governance

    Chief executive officer, FMDQ OTC, Mr. Bola Onadele, commended UBA for being a pioneer in the market and reiterated the FMDQ’s commitment to the development of the Nigerian financial markets, through its efficient platform for the registration, listing, quotation and valuation of bonds.

    He outlined that listing on FMDQ provides issuer with global visibility and transparency, improved secondary market liquidity, price formation and benchmark pricing thus resulting to a more globally competitive capital market.

    Group chief executive officer, United Capital Plc, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, said the UBA bond was the biggest and most successful bond issue in 2014 noting that the success recorded at a time of uncertainty in the capital market was largely due to the credibility and strength of the UBA brand.

     

  • NSE extends deadline for submission of earnings reports

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has extended the March 31 deadline for the submission of audited reports and accounts by quoted companies for a period of one month.

    Companies that operate the Gregorian calendar year as their business year now have up till April 30, 2015 to submit their audited earnings reports for the year ended December 31, 2014.

    The extension came on the heels of an exclusive report by The Nation that more than two-thirds of quoted companies have not submitted their audited reports by the expiration of the earlier deadline of March 31, 2015.

    The NSE stated that the extension was due to some challenges created by shift in the date of national elections from February 14 to March 28 and the layers of regulations for some audited reports.

    According to the NSE, the change in the election calendar also disrupted the meeting calendar and auditing process of some listed companies while some were not able to obtain the prior approval of their primary regulators.

    “While we believe that the timely disclosure of financial information is critical to stakeholders in the capital market, particularly the investing public, the challenges which the listed entities are facing are germane,” NSE stated in a statement signed by Josephine Igbinosun, head of listings regulation department.

    The 30-day extension will apply to the full-year audited report as well as quarterly report. The companies will not be sanctioned or tagged for corporate governance failure during the extended period.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their earnings reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.

    NSE’s regulatory filing calendar had indicated that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year was Tuesday March 31. They were also expected to submit their first quarter report on or before June Tuesday June 30, 2015. Now, this has been extended to July 30, 2015.

    The Nation had last Wednesday had reported that some 150 companies failed to meet the earnings deadline. A headcount by The Nation had indicated that less than a third of quoted companies have submitted their audited earnings report. There are more than 230 companies quoted on the NSE

    Compliance within deadline is generally regarded as a measure of good corporate governance. Companies that failed to meet the earnings deadline will also be sanctioned by the Exchange. They are liable to monetary fines and naming-and-shaming publication of their names.

    A report on sanctions and fines for similar defaults in 2013 showed that the Exchange slammed about N105.9 million on 48 companies that delayed their results. The fines ranged between N200, 000 and N6.8 million. The NSE had slammed some N60.2 million as fines on 34 companies for failure to meet deadlines for 2011 audited reports. With a range of N3.8 million and N100, 000, average fine for the year was N1.77 million.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline.

    Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These include below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorized publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

     

     

  • N15 bond: Court vacates order against SEC, NSE, Elechi

    N15 bond: Court vacates order against SEC, NSE, Elechi

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital yesterday vacated an interim order issued by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in January this year restraining the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange,( NSE) from releasing N15 billion  bond approved for Ebonyi State government.

    This followed the application by  counsel to the state government, Mr Fedrick Onobia urging the court to vacate the injunction.

    In the ruling on the motion filed by a member of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Odefa Obasi Odefa praying the court to restrain the state government and its agencies from accessing the bond facility, Justice Ada Onyetenu vacated the order.

    She frowned at what she described as antics of the plaintiff and the defendants in the case to defeat the course of justice and therefore struck out a motion seeking to disqualify the counsel to Ebonyi State government.

    Justice Onyetenu reserved ruling on another motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court to 6th May.

    In an interview, counsels to the plaintiff, Mr Roy Umahi and Mr Ogwudu Uche said they would challenge the ruling.

    ‘’There was a motion filed in court asking that the cousel for  the 1st -7th defendants  be disqualified in that they are parties to the bond; the subject matter of the suit,” they said.

    Ebonyi State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr Ben Igwenyi hailed the ruling of the court.

    The matter had earlier been transferred from the Federal High Court, Lagos to Abakaliki over jurisdiction.

  • NSE may sanction 150 companies over delayed results

    NSE may sanction 150 companies over delayed results

    As the deadline for quoted companies to submit their audited reports and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2014 expired yesterday, there are indications that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may sanction some 150 companies over their failure to submit their period within the period.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require quoted companies to submit their earnings reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period. Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.

    NSE’s regulatory filing calendar indicates that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year was yesterday.

    The Nation’s check at the NSE yesterday showed that several companies have not submitted their audited reports while several other companies were making last-minute efforts to scale the deadline and avoid the poor corporate governance tag and sanction of the NSE.

    A headcount by The Nation indicated that less than a third of quoted companies have submitted their audited earnings report. There are more than 230 companies quoted on the NSE. Less than 60 companies have submitted their annual reports as at the last count.

    Companies that have submitted their 2014 audited results included Unilever Nigeria, FCMB Group, Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (Nahco), Julius Berger Nigeria, Livestock Feeds, United Bank for Africa (UBA), First Aluminium Nigeria, Sterling Bank, Dangote Cement, Lafarge Africa and Cadbury Nigeria Plc.

    Others included Zenith Bank, Transcorp Hotel, Guaranty Trust Bank, Nestle Nigeria, Forte Oil, Africa Prudential Registrars, Chams Plc, United Capital, Caverton Offshore Support Services, Eterna, Mobil Oil Nigeria, Fidson Healthcare, Total Nigeria, Greif Nigeria, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, Courteville Business Solutions, Wapic Insurance and Nigerian Breweries among others.

    A report on sanctions and fines for similar defaults in 2013 showed that the Exchange slammed about N105.9 million on 48 companies that delayed their results. The fines ranged between N200, 000 and N6.8 million. The NSE had slammed some N60.2 million as fines on 34 companies for failure to meet deadlines for 2011 audited reports. With a range of N3.8 million and N100, 000, average fine for the year was N1.77 million.

    A source at the NSE said the Exchange was committed to enforcing its rules and regulations, especially the post-listing rules that define the integrity of the market.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company.

    These include below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorised publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

  • Foreign investment outflows rise, says NSE

    The flow of foreign divestments compared against investments has increased in recent period as edgy foreign investors appeared to ignore the significant undervaluation of Nigerian equities and the new earnings season to sustain negative foreign portfolio investment trend.

    The latest Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) report of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated that there was “significant increase in foreign portfolio investment outflow”. The report showed that nearly three-quarters of the transactions on the Nigerian stock market were done by foreign investors during the period, highlighting the dominant negative trend orchestrated by the foreign divestments.

    The report, obtained at the weekend, showed that foreign portfolio investment outlook has so far this year been negative, with year-to-date deficit of more than N32 billion. The latest available data were transactions in February 2015.

    According to the NSE, foreign outflows totalled N81.60 billion last month as against inflow of N52.35 billion, indicating a significant increase on the downtrend that started the year when foreign portfolio outflow was N51.08 billion against inflow of N48.03 billion.

    Year-to-date, total foreign inflow stood at N100.38 billion compared with outflow of N132.68 billion, representing net deficit of N32.3 billion. The report underlined concerns that foreign investors were downsizing their portfolios. Nigeria recorded negative net foreign portfolio position of N154.14 billion in 2014 as against a positive net position of a modest N20.48 billion in 2013.

    The latest report also showed continued dominance of the foreign investors in the Nigerian market with foreign transactions accounting for 72.61 per cent of total transactions in February compared with 27.39 per cent contributed by domestic investors. Foreign investors had contributed 52.24 per cent while Nigerian investors accounted for 47.76 per cent in January.

    Altogether the proportion of foreign transactions to domestic transactions so far this year stood at 62.28 per cent and 37.72 per cent respectively.

    The NSE report is generally regarded as a credible gauge of foreign portfolio investments in Nigeria as it coordinates data from nearly all active investment bankers and stockbrokers. Nigeria presently operates a mono stock exchange, which makes the NSE the sole gateway to the nation’s stock market and the NSE’s benchmark indices, the country indices for Nigeria.

    The NSE report used two key indicators-inflow and outflow, to gauge foreign investors’ mood and participation in the stock market as a barometer for the economy. Foreign portfolio investment outflow includes sales transactions or liquidation of equity portfolio investments through the stock market while inflow includes purchase transactions on the NSE.

    Amid concerns that increased foreign divestments and resultant pressure on the national  currency, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently reassured that it would not impose any restriction on the current financial market’s regime of “free entry, free exit”.

    But the CBN said in spite of the pressure, the apex bank would not resort to imposition of capital control, which last vestiges were removed in 2009.

    Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said capital control is not an option in the bank’s fiscal and monetary management.

    According to him, Nigeria wants to maintain its current status of a “free entry, free exit” market, where foreign investors will not be impeded in their legitimate decisions to invest their funds in the country and also to take profits, repatriate their dividends and capital gains or outright divestment.

    The 12-month foreign portfolio investment report for 2014 had shown that foreign portfolio outflow was N846.53 billion as against inflow of N692.39 billion in 2014, representing a net deficit of N154.14 billion. In 2013, total foreign inflow stood at N531.26 trillion compared with outflow of N510.78 trillion, leaving a positive balance of N20.48 billion.

    The report showed a notable spike in foreign transactions, although the negative colouration indicated that the propensity was towards divestment rather than investment. Total foreign transactions rose by 52.5 per cent to N1.54 trillion in 2014 as against N1.01 trillion in 2013.

    Meanwhile, foreign investors remained the dominant bloc at the Nigerian stock market. Foreign transactions accounted for 52.52 per cent of total transactions in 2014 while domestic investors accounted for 42.48 per cent. In 2013, foreign investors had accounted for 50.80 per cent while Nigerian investors accounted for 49.20 per cent. Domestic investors traded N1.137 trillion in 2014 as against N1.009 trillion in 2013.

    Market analysts said investors were anxious about Nigeria’s macroeconomic and monetary outlook in the light of the declining global oil prices and rising economic risks. They also cited political risk.

     

     

  • NSE market capitalization increases by N27bn

    NSE market capitalization increases by N27bn

    The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday improved by N27 billion to close at N9.872 trillion due to marginal gains posted by some blue chip equities.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was N9.845 trillion posted at the close of trading on Monday.

    An analysis of the price movement showed that PZ led the gainers’ table, appreciating by N1.20 to close at N25.55 per share.

    It was followed by Flour Mills with 97k to close at N32.93, while Stanbic IBTC increased by 76k to close at N27.90 per share.

    Dangote Cement improved by 58k to close at N152.88 and Nigerian Breweries rose by 50k to close at N132 per share.

    Consequently, the All-Share Index rose by 78.53 basis points or 0.27 per share to close at 29,584.00 compared with 29,505.47 recorded on Monday.

    Conversely, Seplat Petroleum recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers’ chart, dropping by N18.08 to close at N370 per share.

    Nestle trailed with a loss of N15 to close at N805, while Guinness lost by N2 to close at N127 per share.

    Cement Company of Northern Nigeria dipped N1.01 to close at N10.79 and UAC declined by 71k to close at N33.49 per share.

    The volume of shares traded dropped by 65.43 per cent with an exchange of 211.43 million shares worth N2.85 billion traded in 3,808 deals.

    NAN reports that this was against the 611.72 million shares valued N5.62 billion exchanged in 3,271 deals on Monday.

    Zenith Bank was the toast of investors, accounting for 47.51 million shares worth N782.61 million traded in 361 deals.

    FCMB traded 16.87 million shares worth N46.33 million transacted in 188 deals, while Transcorp sold 15.53 million shares valued N41.11 million in 166 deals.

    GT Bank accounted for 15.25 million shares worth N342.76 million traded in 218 deals and UBA traded 14.49 million shares valued N56.57 million achieved in 274 deals.

  • Photo: President Jonathan visits Nigerian Stock Exchange

    Photo: President Jonathan visits Nigerian Stock Exchange

    President Jonathan greets brokers on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Thursday.
    President Jonathan greets brokers on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Thursday.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    A wide angle shot of floor members greeting President Jonathan
    A wide angle shot of floor members greeting President Jonathan

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    President Jonathan commissioning the X-Gen Platform at the Stock Exchange.
    President Jonathan commissioning the X-Gen Platform at the Stock Exchange.
  • NSE frets over illegal trading at stock market

    NSE frets over illegal trading at stock market

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has discovered unscrupulous trading on its trading engine due to activities of some stockbroking firms which are providing passwords and access to unauthorised persons to trade on the stock market’s trading engine.

    The discovery has triggered a red alert at the Exchange, which fears that such provision of access codes, passwords and trading facilities to unauthorised persons can compromise the integrity of the trading system and expose the Exchange, investors and market operators to undue risks.

    A source at the Exchange indicated that though there were no untoward incidents related to the unauthorised access, the Exchange was miffed by the flagrant disregard of its operating rules and procedures by some stockbroking firms.

    The source noted that preliminary investigation showed that the stockbroking firms appeared to be providing the passwords and access codes to other stockbrokers and unauthorised internal staff as a form of camaraderie and to bridge dearth of human capital.

    Rules and regulations at the NSE prohibit sharing of access codes, passwords and trading facilities. Article 81 of the rules and regulations of the NSE stipulates that access to the trading engine shall be by the use of trader identification code and the assigned password, making such issuance exclusive to the dealing member.

    “The Exchange will issue to every dealing member trading codes for access to the trading engine of the floor of the Exchange and no dealing member or user thereof shall share its log-in details and password with another dealing member or user,” stated Article 85 of the rules and regulations of the NSE.

    The source indicated that the NSE will wield the big stick and apply sanctions on the affected firms. Violation of the strict access rules carries many sanctions including suspension from trading and monetary fines.

    The source said that it was also discovered that some stockbroking firms were resorting to granting access to unauthorised persons-such as their staff, to trade for them because they could not employ qualified authorised trading clerks who have been trained to operate on the Financial Information Exchange (FIX) technology of the NSE.

    Under the rules of the Exchange, dealing members are expected to have at least two authorised dealing clerks in their employment at all times. Authorised dealing clerks are licenced stockbrokers that have successfully passed the training and inducted as a trader by the NSE.

    However, some stockbroking firms have been discovered to be running without authorised dealing clerks, contrary to the rules of the stock market.

    The source pointed out that under the rules of the Exchange; all employees that are not authorised dealing clerks are strictly disallowed from accessing trading facilities while an authorised dealing clerk’s trading codes and access cannot be shared with another authorised dealing clerk or users.

    Under the rules of the Exchange, any dealing member or authorised dealing clerk that violates the restriction on the trading access will be suspended for two weeks and also made to pay a fine of N500,000.

    Besides, any authorised clerk or trainee authorised clerk that appears on the trading floor without an access control card or uses an access control card belonging to another authorised clerk or trainee authorised clerk to enter or exit the trading floor shall be liable to two-week suspension from the trading floor and denial of access to the trading platform in addition to a fine of N250,000.

    The rules also prohibit false representation and impersonation. According to the rules, where any authorised clerk or trainee authorised clerk falsely presents himself as another authorised clerk or trainee authorised clerk and enters or attempts to enter the trading floor while wearing the trading floor badge of the other authorised clerk or trainee authorised clerk or he uses or attempts to use their access control card to enter or exit the trading floor, such a violator shall be suspended from the trading floor and denied access to the trading platform for two weeks in addition to a fine of N250,000.

    The person who granted the violator access control card will also be liable to suspension from the trading floor and denial of access to the trading platform for two weeks as well as a fine of N500,000.