Nigeria’s Stock Investors Lose N713bn Last Month

• Nigeria’s Stock Investors Lose N713bn Last Month

Investors in the Nigerian stock exchange lost N713 billion in April as the equity market sustained bearish trend despite improved fundamentals.

The market capitalisation of listed equity opened at N11.672 trillion in April and closed at N10.959 trillion, while the NSE All-Share Index dropped from 31,04.42 basis points to 29,159.74 bps on Tuesday, the last trading day of the month. The total losses during the month rose to N713 billion.

The lack of clarity in terms of economic policy continues to hurt investors sentiment as most traders were unsure of the policy path.

Still, foreign reserves grew to over $44 billion during the month amid 30 percent surged in global oil prices, yet activities in the oil & gas sector of the NSE remained flat throughout the month.

Experts believe more is needed on policy position to boost participation and sustain investments into the Nigerian Stock Exchange market.

The central bank on Monday reported that activities in the manufacturing sector surged in April for the twenty-fifth consecutive months. Production level, new order and job creation were expanding at a moderate pace yet they have little to no substantial impact on the overall performance of the economy.

The unemployment rate remained high at 23.1 percent or 20.9 million unemployed people despite continuous job creation in the sector, while regional growth continues to disappoint following recent release by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said, “In the near term, we expect to see bargain hunting activities due to the attractive entry prices of several fundamentally-sound stocks in the market, although this may be short-lived in the absence of major growth triggers in the economy.”

Investors are not expecting anything different in terms of policy from the administration after winning the general election, that in part weigh on the overall economic sentiment.