Some financial experts on Monday said that spate of regulatory sanctions in the nation's bourse would serve as a threat to the country's quest for foreign investment.

The financial experts, who expressed dissatisfaction with the rate of regulatory sanctions in the country, said that regulations ought to be done with human face.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the regulators should not compound the market's problem as it had suffered a lot of depression due to economic uncertainties.

Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, former President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), said that regulations should not destroy the market and economy in their quest for zero tolerance.

Unegbu said that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) should be concerned with the developments in the market to boost investor confidence.

He said that NSE should pay more attention to the market and map out strategies aimed at protecting investors from unwarranted loss like its contemporaries.

Unegbu said that the exchange should be proactive rather than reactive in its regulatory function to protect investors.

He said that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange suspended trading on MTN shares to protect the investing public from severe loss due to sanction on the company by Nigeria over SIM registration.

Unegbu said that investors had lost billions of naira in the market due to regulatory sanctions.

He said that companies no doubt must comply with international best practice in line with the rules of corporate governance.

Mallam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd., said that government’s major concern should be on ways to increase the number of companies that were paying taxes to boost revenue generation.

“Government should concentrate on ways to increase revenue generation through tax payment instead of huge sanctions being imposed on companies.”

Kurfi said that regulatory sanctions were not good for the market because it would scare foreign investors.

He said the action would also affect company’s bottom line and dividend payable to shareholders.

NAN reports that the All-Share Index last week lost 336.05 points or 1.14 per cent to close at 28,841.67 compared with 29,177.72 posted in the previous week.

Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N10.029 trillion lost N114 billion or 1.14 per cent to close at N9.915 trillion due to price depreciation.

A.G Leventis topped the losers' chart in percentage terms, dropping by 12.75 per cent or 13k to close at 89k per share.

It was followed by Caverton with a loss of 9.42 per cent or 26k to close at N2.50, while e-Tranzact dropped by 9.26 per cent or 25k to close at N2.45 per share.

On the other hand, Unilever led the gainers' table in percentage terms, growing by 15.75 per cent or N4.95 to close at N36.38 per share.

Eterna Plc followed with a gain of 12.42 per cent or 20k to close at N1.81 and UACN Property gained 10.14 per cent or 67k to close at N7.28 per share.

Meanwhile, a turnover of 2.06 billion shares worth N23.39 billion were traded by investors' in 14,992 deals last week.

This was against 1.95 billion shares valued N17.34 billion exchanged in 15,762 deals in the preceding week.

The Financial Services industry led the week's activity chart with a total of 1.48 billion shares worth N14.56 billion transacted in 8,406 deals.

The Oil and Gas sector followed with 324.106 million shares worth N1.84 billion traded in 1,680 deals.

The third place was occupied by the Conglomerates industry with a turnover of 97.57 million shares worth N225.66 million achieved in 938 deals. (NAN)

•Photo shows NSE DG, Oscar Onyeama.

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