The All-Share Index on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the year Friday with 20,827.17 points, making it the worst performing equity index worldwide, despite a bullish rally on the New Year eve, according to the privately-owned Guardian newspaper.
The assessment was contained in a Bloomberg report, which reviewed 91 largest indexes across the globe.
At a time when other economies were recovering from the global economic downturn, the Nigerian capital market was still struggling within the crisis, the paper reported.
Although, a lot of reasons were attributed to the slow pace of the nation’s capital market growth, prominent ones among the events that almost dragged the economy to its knees included the fall in the global oil prices, the effects of the just-concluded audit in the banking industry by the Central Bank of Nigeria, declining rate of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in the country, sagging confidence of investors in the capital market, systemic failure on the part of regulators an d wrong fundamentals presented by some listed equities on the Exchange.
Giving a review on capital market activities in 2009, the Chairman, Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON), Mr. Rasheed Yussuff, said that Nigeria was still recording a slow pace in the growth of its capital market because proactive measures were not taken when the economic downturn hit the country.
According to him, “while other countries were busy addressing the issues affecting their economies, Nigeria was indulging in trading blames, thus worsening the market situation in 2009.
The paper quoted Yussuff as saying: “Our expectations for 2009 were high, but events did not really favour the capital market.”
He added that there was the need for government to pass into law a bill that will help revive the economy, saying, “in developed countries, the governments have taken proactive steps in reviving their economies and their capital markets.”
He, however, warned that the impact of neglecting the capital market was being felt across all sectors of the economy, saying this could linger on if the government did not address it immediately.
At the close of transactions Friday, the All-Share Index which opened at 20,561.15 points closed higher at 20,827.17 points, rising by 266.02 points, while market capitalization increased by N64 billion from N4.92 trillion to N4.89 trillion.