LAGOS – Some financial operators in the capital market on Wednesday said that consistent fluctuations of the Nigerian bourse impacted negatively on investors’ expectations in the third quarter of 2014.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos in separate interviews that the unstable character of listed stocks compounded existing investment lethargy of retail investors in the period under review.
Mr Gbenga Obisesan, the Managing Director, Topmost Securities Ltd., said the market would have performed better but for persistent fluctuations.
He said the fluctuations in the market made investors to withdraw from the market and in effect prolonging the bearish period.
“The third quarter of the year has mixed performance; the stock prices were not steady. Today the market goes up, the next day it comes down.
“So, this natural character of the market was prevalent within the period and that was mainly responsible for the low performance and returns on investment in the stock market,” Obeisesan said.
Also speaking, Mr Emmanuel Eze, the Managing Director, Perfecter Investment Trust Ltd., attributed the low performance of the market in the quarter to the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak which drove many operators and brokers out of the market.
He said Ebola scare made many brokers to stop coming to the floor of the Exchange for fear of contacting the virus.
“As a result of this, most brokers decided to trade from their homes and various offices.
“This I believe might not have yielded high productivity as it should have yielded if they were trading from the floor of the Exchange,” he said.
He also pointed out that payment of students’ school fees and house rents which were prevalent in the third quarter equally contributed to its low turnout. [eap_ad_1] According to him, in a bid to pay off house rents and school fees, many investors decided not invest but rather sold off their shares to settle their debts.
In his comment, Mr Chineyem Anyanwu, a Managing Partner of Dependable Securities Ltd., said the forthcoming 2015 elections and the security challenges being faced by the country also contributed to the low returns of the market.
According to him, the situation scared some foreign investors including the local investors from putting large volume of their income into the market.
“A good number of investors have put their money into election campaigns. In fact, I anticipate that the market will bounce back fully and perform better as from the beginning of next year.”
Meanwhile, the market capitalisation in second quarter of the year stood at N19.091 trillion compared to the N18.94 trillion achieved in the 3rd quarter ended Sept. 30.
The market capitalisation depreciated by N142 billion or 0.74 per cent.
In all, the volume of shares trade decreased by 15.71 per cent as 13.01 billion shares worth N261.37 billion were transacted by investors in 103,079 deals in the third quarter.
This was against the 15.445 billion shares valued N277.79 billion in 114,796 deals recorded in second quarter of the year. (NAN)
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