Excited by the story of how an American couple made fortune out of the Apple company’s shares in the U S, veteran investors in Nigeria have identified similar opportunities in local stock market and advised investors to take early advantage.

The story published in The National Memo, an online magazine, stated: “The stock market can skyrocket anyone’s net worth. A New York-based Ning Wang and Ting Qian, are the perfect example of how stock market can skyrocket anyone’s net worth.

“Neither of the couple is a stock market genius. One is a newspaper editor and the other, is an engineer.“They scooped up shares of Apple throughout the late ‘90s, held on to them, and watched as the stock surged 7,864 per cent since.
“That’s enough to turn their $33,000 investment into over a $1 million windfall.”

The magazine further stated that what Wang and Qian realized from their experience was that there would soon be another chance for them to grab a similar opportunity as millions of tech-hungry consumers line up to get their hands on Apple’s next era-defining technology.“Here’s how. Apple is set to sell millions of new Apple watches, plus millions of iPhones and millions of iPads.

“But what most people don’t know is there are invaluable, tiny components inside all of these devices that Apple doesn’t manufacture in-house. They don’t make it because they don’t have the technology or the patents to do so.

“So, Apple hired another quoted company that owns the rights to those patents. Apple pays that company for including its technology in their gadgets.

“And because that company will get paid every time Apple sells a new device, you can imagine the kind of growth that can do to that company’s stock price in the equities’ market.”

Based on this, the couple has embarked on acquiring the current low-priced shares of that other company in anticipation of the expected huge income that company will make from Apple and which will ultimately make the price of this other company’s shares to rise.

Pointing to a similar opportunity that enabled him to make a fortune in Nigerian stock market in mid 1970s and early 1980s, an elderly Nigerian shareholder, Pa Giwa O. Adetunji, who read the American couple’s success story, narrated to The Guardian that it takes wisdom and patience to make money from equities.

According to him, in mid 1970s, government placed a ban on the importation of wheat and this made the prices of the shares of flourmill companies in the country to fall to rock bottom level.

“Many shareholders started to dump the shares of flour mills. The share prices became so low. But I took advantage of the low prices to acquire the shares and kept them. But some years later, government lifted the ban on wheat and the flour mills in the country bounced back to booming business, their profits soared and many investors, who wanted to benefit from the windfall besieged the equities market to buy flour mills’ shares. The share prices went up and when I sold my own, I made huge profits which was then in thousands of naira because at that time a million naira was not easy to come by.

Pa Adetunji and his close associates, who live on their pensions and dividends from companies they invested in, said they could see a similar investment opportunities now in the stock market for those that have investment sense to take advantage of.

According to him, the call on the government and its agencies to patronize made-in Nigeria goods, if implemented, will boost the fortunes of many indigenous companies.

This was also corroborated by eminent stockbrokers who viewed the current tumbling prices of shares in the stock market as ample opportunity for shrewd investors to invest.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) also, at another forum, confirmed that the continued decline in global growth amidst rising uncertainties reinforces the need for players in Nigeria’s economy to explore fresh opportunities for growth by looking inward for domestic production and infrastructural development.

Among the capital market operators who spoke to The Guardian at different occasions were: Mr. Femi Ekundayo, former president, Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria and Chief Executive Officer, Resort Group of Financial Services firms; Mr. Chike Nwenze,Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, Icon Stockbrokers Limited; Mr. Olu Abayomi Sanya, Chief Executive Officer, Goldbanc Management Associates Limited (GMA); and Godwin Ashikordi, Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Admark Global Resources Limited.

Ashikordi observed that investing in stocks, there are a few universal truths. “One of them is that at some point, a stock’s price will fall. There are many reasons why a stock’s price falls and it is up to an investor to find out the cause because it is only when the cause of the falling price is known that one can decide if it is time to sell one’s share or use the period of falling price to purchase more equities,” he said.

According to him, the decision to sell should focus on a company’s future prospects and fundamentals relative to its current stock price. “If the fundamentals of a company in which you have shares have not changed, then there may be no reason to sell its shares. Many investors lose sight of this and allow their emotions to dictate their sell decisions.

“The basic thing is to understand what is causing the price to fall. It is important to keep your investment horizon in mind—long-term investors should not be deterred by short-term declines.

Pa Adetunji… said he sees a similar investment opportunities now in the stock market for those that have investment sense to take advantage of. According to him, the call on the government and its agencies to patronize made-in Nigeria goods, if implemented, will boost the fortunes of many indigenous companies this year.”

“What is happening now in our market is that because the exchange rate is not stable, the foreign fund managers are desperately selling off their shares. The panic dumping has ignited fears in many other investors, who ordinarily could not have bothered to dump their shares. This is the cause of the unwarranted depreciation in market capitalisation.

“The plummeting equities prices do not in anyway affect the fundamentals of the companies whose share prices are crashing on the floor of the Stock Exchange.

Nwenze, on his part, explained that the dumping of equities by foreign shareholders has been compounded by a combination of factors, which hinder those who could have been mopping up the excess supplies from the market. These include legislative limit placed on insurance companies and pension fund mangers, not to go beyond a certain level in their investment in equities. Others include the CBN’s restraining banks from lending to stockbrokers to procure shares and the lingering bitter experience encountered by retail investors some years back.

“In fact, this is the right time a wise investor ought to come and invest in the market,” he advised.Lending his own voice, Ekundayo said: “Most discerning investors view this kind of period of steady decline in stocks’ prices as an excellent buying opportunity. Their reasons being that since the declines in prices are caused by money managers selling their holdings to raise money and go away, then this is the right time to buy the unduly undervalued stocks being dumped by the fleeing foreign investors as well as the fear-gripped local investors. Those who rake the shares now can securely and patiently keep them till when the prices will be going up in not too distant future, and then start selling to take profit.

“Truly, if the government of President Buhari can come up with economic blueprints, sign into law the pending bill that wants the government and its agencies, including individual citizens to, patronise made-in-Nigeria goods, fast-track the introduction of the proposed infrastructure fund, the market will begin to come back to life, and in no time, the story will change and the patient dogs will begin to eat the fattest bone.”