LAGOS – Chief Okechukwu Unegbu, a former President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), has blamed the SEC and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for their apathy in protecting local [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]investors in the capital market.
Unegbu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday that SEC and NSE failed to boost [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”8″]the confidence of retail investors which made them to shun the capital market.
He said that the current emphasis on foreign investors by the regulators led to the downturn of the nation’s equities market.
Unegbu, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Maxifund Investments Ltd., said that the market regulators had not done much to increase the knowledge of local investors on market dynamics through increased participation.
He said that foreign investors were panic sellers who could exit the market at any slightest economic challenge.
According to him, foreign investors are sensitive to currency fluctuations and price volatility and can exit at any given time unlike local investors.
“Nigeria needs foreign direct investments and not foreign portfolio investors that can cause panic selling.
“Money does not make the strength of the market, but strong local investors that can do big ticket transactions,” he said.
Unegbu stressed the need for enhanced sensitisation programmes by the two market regulators in 2015 to win back local investors’ confidence.
“SEC and NSE should develop local investors first because are not facing currency risks and they cannot run away from their country no matter what happened,” he said.
NAN reports that between January and November 2014 foreign investors took out N793.17 billion from the NSE.
The figure, according to statistics released by the NSE, represents 67.5 per cent increase on the N473.16 billion foreign outflow from the market in the corresponding period of 2013.
Meanwhile, a turnover of 1.66 billion shares worth N16.59 billion were traded by investors in 23,591 deals last week.
This is against the 2.01 billion shares valued at N23.38 billion traded in 20,902 deals in the preceding week.
The Financial Services Sector led the activity chart with 1.37 billion shares worth N9.22 billion achieved in 13,354 deals.
The Conglomerates followed with a turnover of 97.83 million shares valued at N548.89 million in 1,557 deals.
The third place was occupied by the Consumer Goods industry with 57.87 million shares worth N3.98 billion in 3,872 deals.
The NSE All-Share Index dropped by 3.68 per cent or 1108.13 basis points to 29,034.89 compared with 30,143.02 posted in the preceding week due to huge losses.
Also, the market capitalisation lost N309 billion in spite of the listing of 7.6 million shares of Transcorp Hotels at N10 per share to close at N9.671 trillion against N9.980 trillion achieved in the previous week. (NAN)
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