The series of tensed political developments in Nigeria coupled with some negative macroeconomic statistics have taken a huge toll on the competitiveness of Nigeria’s stock market, crashing the ranking of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, to worst performing in Africa 2018Year-to-Date, YtD.

NSE was ranked best performing in Africa in 2017. It was also ranked the third best in the world last year by ‘CNN Money’ after recording a whopping 48 per cent returns on investments during the year.

According to Vanguard, as at Tuesday, September 3, 2018, the NSE All-Share Index, ASI, had fallen by -11.3 per cent YtD.

The weekly pan-African stock market monitor by United Capital Plc, a Lagos based investment house, which built the statistics indicated that BVRM (“Regional Securities Exchange) was the second-worst performing stock market in Africa with a negative return of -11.1 per cent YTD. BVRM covers Francophone West Africa’s weaker economies including Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The analysts listed Morocco Stock Exchange as the third performing with -7.1 per cent negative return. South Africa, competing for leadership position amongst African economies by size, also had its course, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE, going down, but was better of with a -1.3 per cent negative return.

On the flip side, the Tunis Stock Exchange, TSE, topped other major exchanges, rising by 33.4 per cent during the eight-month period, followed by Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, ZSE, and Ghana Stock Exchange, GSE, which rose by 21.8 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively.

Explaining the lacklustre performance of the NSE, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, Managing Director/CEO, Cowry Asset Management, a Lagos-based investment banking firm, said that the major constrictive factor that led to weak performance of the Nigeria equities market is the present political situation, adding that none of the countries that outperformed the NSE is going through a national election fever.

•Excerpted from a Vanguard report

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