The progressive fall in the prices of equities listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange increased the amount lost in the market capitalisation of listed equities on the Exchange on Thursday to N21bn in three days.But for the marginal rise recoded at the close of activities on Monday, market capitalisation of equities hadbeen on a downward trend consecutively in the last three days.A market capitalisation of N6.428tn was recorded at the close of trading on Monday. It, however, fell to N6.407tn at the end of business on Thursday, a development that analysts described as "uninteresting."Speaking on the development, analysts at Meristem Securities Limited, in their daily bulletin on market performance, said that the the market value was not encouraging, though it was not as bad as what obtained in the European stock markets.Meanwhile, the All Share Index has joined in the fall since the beginning of the week, a development that has triggered varied concerns among stakeholders."For three straight days in a row, the NSE ASI has fallen freely, losing a compounded 28 basis points. A performance, though not interesting, but commendable when place side by side with Euro Stoxx 50 index," Meristem said.The crash in the stock market has made some stockbrokers, investors and shareholders to lose faith in the near recovery of the capital market, with many of them expressing doubts over a possible end to the equities continued downward journey till the end of the year.According to some analysts, the monetary reforms undertaken by the Central Bank of Nigeria have impacted negatively on the market. They said the development had made both local and foreign investors to lose confidence in the market."A key foreign investor in this market specifically told me that they are no longer interested in investing here," said a source at the Exchange, who requested not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the subject.The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Atlass Portfolios Limited, Mr. Ubale Yahaya, said, "I dont see the market picking up this year. In fact, what we should look forward to now is for activities to gather momentum next year, when investors, among other things, would have been able to adjust to the high MPR from the CBN."The Monetary Policy Committee of the apex bank, in an emergency meeting in October 10, had raised Nigerias benchmark interest rate by 275 basis points to 12 per cent, from 9.25 per cent, making it the sixth time the MPR would be increased since the beginning of the year.Stakeholders had earlier described the development as an unhealthy one for the capital market and the manufacturing sector of the economy, especially."The CBN had done a lot of damage to the capital market because a lot of investors are no longer interested in the market; but theyll rather watch how activities thrive from afar," Yahaya said.
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