Following the continuous drop in equity prices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) since the beginning of the year, past presidents of Council of the NSE have come together to find possible solutions to the current market crisis.
The primary market indicators of the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI) and the market capitalization of all listed equities have slumped significantly since the turn of the year, due to the pummeling oil prices in the international market, uncertainty in Nigeria’s economic environment, foreign exchange crisis and the CBN’s insistence on defending the naira among others.
The All share Index, for instance, which stood at 27,028.39 points as at January 8th 2016, has slumped to 25,145.28 points at the close of business transactions yesterday, while the market capitalization which stood at N9.296 trillion as at the same day in January has fallen by N64 billion to N8.65 trillion as at close of transaction yesterday.
Also, foreign investors who form the chunk of participants at the stock exchange withdrew total sum of N31.84 billion from the market as at February, 2016, representing 20.79 per cent from N26.36 billion withdrawn in January 2016.
Present at the meeting to deliberate on the way forward were the immediate past president of the council, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group; Dr. Oba Otudeko, Chairman, Honeywell Flourmills Plc; Dr. Raymond Obieri, Mallam Balama Mahu, Mr. Goddy Ibru, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, and the incumbent president, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
Speaking at the closing gong ceremony at the end of the meeting, Aig-Imoukhuede, said the meeting became necessary to tap from experiences of the past presidents in tackling the current challenges in the market.
He noted that the effort to demutualise the stock exchange and make it a listed entity that has been on-going also formed part of the deliberation.
He said: “The meeting was largely to brief the past presidents on market developments, especially in the last five years. We also discussed critical projects the exchange has embarked upon, derivates, and most importantly, the demutualization project.
“The demutualization is a process that captures the importance of history to any exchange and obviously there are experiences over the years that could be valuable towards the successful implementation of the demutualization programme, which we take very seriously here on this exchange..
“The present circumstances that we face and of course, the future of the exchange has its root in the past; a number of past presidents have commented on the current challenges facing most stock markets in the world, especially the challenge our market is facing at this point in time.
“Of course, different presidents here today faced different challenges during their tenure. We happen to be facing a global capital market challenge and certainly across a number of economic challenges.
Aig-Imoukhuede, however, enjoined the investors as well as the stockbroking community to remain optimistic despite the lull, saying: “the market as we know experiences volatility from time to time and we have high as well as low points. Vanguard
