Nigeria, Jan. 1 -- Nigerian stocks posted their best outing in nearly two decades this year as the main equity index showed a yield of 51.2 per cent at market close in Lagos on Wednesday. Never since 2007, when equities returned 74.7 per cent, had the benchmark index performed that high.

The inflation-beating performance stands 36.8 per cent higher than consumer inflation for November, which was 14.5 per cent.

The market capitalisation of the 151 quoted stocks on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) was valued at N99.4 trillion at the end of trade. That compares to N62.8 trillion a year earlier.

The all-share index closed at 155,613.03 points, up from 102,926 at the beginning of the year.

Monetary authorities' shift from a contractionary polic...