THE GROWTH OF CAPITAL MARKET IN NIGERIA AND THE UNFOLDING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1  Background to the Study
The capital market has been identified as an institution that contributes to the socio-economic growth and development of emerging and developed countries. This is made possible through some vital roles played, such as channeling resources, promoting reforms to modernize the financial sectors, financial intermediation capacity to link deficit to surplus sector of the economy and a veritable tool in the mobilization and allocation of savings among competitive uses which are critical to the growth and efficiency of the economy (Pat & James, 2010).
The stock market development can be categorized using three main characteristics; traditional, institutional and asset pricing. (Demirguc-Kunt & Levine, 1996). Traditional characteristics are concerned with basic growth measures of stock market. These measures include number of listed companies and market capitalization. The institutional characteristics measures are the regulatory and legal role that may influence functioning of the market, information disclosure and transparency requirements as well as market barriers and trading cost. The asset price characteristics measures focus on the efficiency of the market especially in relation to the pricing of risk.
One of the major indicators of capital market development is the proportion of long-term fixed capital that is raised in relation to the gross domestic product. Between 1999 and 2004, capital formation in terms of long-term funds raised from the market through new securities to the gross domestic  product averages only 1.36% while beween 2005 to 2010 the new issues to gross fixed capital formation averages