Share prices hit 10-year low amid uncertainties, weak economy, others

Prevailing economic downturn has continued to trigger persistent fall in share prices of listed firms, as share prices of most bluechip companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), hit 10-year low under the current financial year.
 
Among these stocks are Flourmill of Nigeria, UACN, Guinness, Julius Berger, Honeywell Flour, UACN Property Development Company, GlaxoSmithKline, PZ Cussons and a host of many others, which are currently trading at levels last seen at almost a decade. Investors that have held the stocks in the last 10 years, have lost a large chunk of their holdings, as analysts blamed the development on massive selloffs witnessed in the nation’s bourse in the recent time due to prolonged confidence crisis and low liquidity.
 
So far, the earnings released by listed firms across all the quarters, including the half-year, have been weak, with most of them missing expectations and forecasts prompting negative price reactions in the midst of the prevailing low liquidity and even confidence crisis.

“It has never gotten this bad and it is very unfortunate. It is because the politicians have forgotten the economy of governance, and just facing the politics of governance. They do not care about investment, employment, productivity and the rest; the economy is in a comatose state, and that is a reflection of what we are witnessing in the stock market. He insisted that government must involve experts in governance to revitalise the economy, saying; “In terms of intellectual and input, Nigeria has developed so much that we can compete with other countries of the world, but politics is crude and backward. Our economists are excellent, they develop themselves. 

“We must get economic experts into governance, let portfolios be assigned and let us know who the managers of the economy are,” he added.  Similarly, President of Constance Shareholders Association, Shehu Makail, said the current state of stock market is a reflection of the weak macroeconomic situation being witnessed in Nigeria.He said: “It is quite unfortunate that stock market investors have lost so much since after the 2008 global financial crisis. While other emerging markets like ours have wriggled out of the crisis, Nigerian stock market is still struggling to find its feet despite the measures put in place so far by the regulators to strengthen the market.
 
“Let us know the direction of the economy. Government needs to tackle the issues of insecurity headlong; it is an impediment to investment. If you do not address insecurity, you cannot grow the economy because investors will not want to invest where their investment is not secured, and we need FDI to grow our economy.”