Nigerian stocks, world-beaters in January, have given up their gains for 2018 as risk-averse investors move their money elsewhere.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index dropped 1.1 per cent as of 1:52 p.m. in Lagos Thursday, leaving the benchmark 0.2 per cent lower for the year. The gauge has slumped 15 per cent from its mid-January peak.
“Risk aversion and apathy from portfolio investors is taking its toll on the Nigerian market,” Sewa Wusu, an analyst at SCM Capital in Lagos, said by phone. “Increasing yields in treasury bonds in advanced economies, particularly in the U.S., may have also shifted focus from the Nigerian market.”
Nigerian equities advanced earlier this year as increased prices for oil, the nation’s biggest export, boosted optimism among investors and reduced foreign-exchange shortages. Net purchases of stocks by foreigners seeking higher yielding emerging-market assets jumped 13-fold in January from a year earlier, but have since slowed, dropping nine per cent in April, figures from the NSE show.
“The two risks investors are concerned about now is currency and country risks,” Oscar Onyema, chief executive officer of the NSE, told reporters in Lagos Thursday. “You would probably see activity in the market when there is a catalyst for it, otherwise people would want to wait and see from a political perspective before going on with their large investment plans. That is the feedback they are giving us.”
Source: Bloomberg