NSE, Meristem to launch investment style-focused

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, and Meristem Securities Limited are collaborating to launch two new style indices – the NSE-Meristem Growth Index and NSE-Meristem Value Index. The style indices were designed in response to demand for customized indices to support product development and investment management. Broadly, the style indices will provide a benchmark for the market to gauge the performance of value stocks and growth stocks listed on the Exchange and will also offer investors opportunity to make investments in products that truly match their investment styles and objectives. The index will be calculated and maintained by the NSE.

Mr. Jude Chiemeka, Divisional Head, Trading Business Division, NSE, commenting on the launch, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Meristem Securities in the development of the first style-focused indices to be publicly launched in Nigeria. The introduction of the NSE-Meristem Growth and NSE-Meristem Value Indices is a laudable and innovative effort which is long overdue. “These indices provide products strategists and asset managers the leverage to create investment vehicles that democratize professional asset management for the benefit of investors, while still following the tenets of classic investment philosophies: growth and value. The indices are available for licensing and the investing public is encouraged to take advantage of the benefits they provide.”he added.

Also speaking, Mrs. Oluwakemi Akinde, Group Head, Investment Research, Meristem Securities Limited, explained that the indices are benchmarks to track the performance of growth and value stocks that are traded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, thereby contributing to the deepening of the equity capital market by providing a leverage for fund managers to build investment products. “Furthermore, the indices serve as more appropriate benchmarks for fund managers with same investment philosophies, help in effective performance attribution, and facilitate better manager selection and appraisal, while also providing market data for academics to enrich studies on the performance of growth and value stocks in the Nigerian market.