Investors lose N413billion amid gloomy macro-economic indices

The market capitalisation dropped by N413 billion or 3.5 per cent from N11.684 trillion to N11.271 trillion. The downtrend continued on lack of economic direction, and the much-needed positive information to trigger demand.

Reacting to the market performance, the Chief Executive Officer, Investdata Consulting, Ambrose Omodion, said stock market in the November closed in the red in an attempt to resist the decline recorded in the previous month.“During the month, there were 21 trading sessions, with the market closing red on 13 of those days, and up in eight, continuing a 10-month downtrend that impacted negatively on year-to-date return that stood at a loss position of 19.17 per cent. This is attributable to brewing political concerns, weak macro-economic indices and the exit of foreign investors due to the high yield environment in developed markets.
“This has made the Nigerian stock market rank among the worst performing across Africa and indeed, the globe with many stocks on the exchange suffering huge losses, a situation that has however made many of them highly undervalued, offering high margin of safety for discerning investors.”

Analysts linked the poor performance to a combination of weak and mixed third quarter earnings, made worse by dwindling macro-economic indices that confirmed a slowdown reflected in the composite indices of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the month.

Analysts linked the poor performance to a combination of weak and mixed third quarter earnings, made worse by dwindling macro-economic indices that confirmed a slowdown reflected in the composite indices of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the month.

Indeed, at close of transactions last month, the sectorial indicators point to stagnation in the economy, with many companies unable to grow their sales revenue in the recent corporate earnings reports, despite all the domestic and foreign borrowing and huge budgets since 2015.

These have not been helped either by the uncertainties now associated with next year’s general elections that have made the market close lower for the month under review, despite resisting decline for more than two weeks.

During the period, the benchmark All-Share index side-trended, before giving up to sell pressure, after which it broke down support level to make lower lows on lower demand for stocks.

Manufacturing activities in the current year have remained low, due to the declining purchasing power of Nigerians and dwindling productivity, evident in the free fall in share prices of firms under the subsector.Specifically, the first three quarterly results of companies listed on the NSE generally reveal mixed performances in revenue among operators in consumer and industrial goods sectors.

Most of them came below expectations, reflecting the impact of low economic activities, and high cost of living and doing business. Another important factor is the resurgence of inflation.

Furthermore, November saw the NSE All-Share Index lose a total of 1,132 basis points or 3.4 per cent from 32,006.65 at which it opened on Thursday 1st, to 30,874.17 as at Friday 30th.