By Odunewu Segun
Investors on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost a whopping N6.87 billion within the first 78 minutes of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first appearance in 14 days.
Recall that at the close of business on Thursday, market capitalization stood at N9, 045,302,101,604.97, and when the market opened on Friday, the stock exchange gained N30.66 billion, rallying at N9, 075,965,863,135.82. But when the news of the president’s first public appearance in weeks, broke, it nosedived.
Within the next 78 minutes from about 2:12pm to 3:30pm, the market shed N6,871,064,372.41 to close at N9,069,094,798,763.41.
Net capital flight has been on the decline of late as the market capitalization of the Nigerian bourse has remained around the N9 trillion mark, as against N8 trillion in the opening weeks of 2016.
In fact, through the first eight trading days of 2016, the market lost 1.2 trillion to become the worst performing exchange in Africa.
At the time, the Nigerian bourse was only better than China and Saudi Arabia in the entire world.
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On the first trading day of 2017, Nigeria’s market capitalization stood at N9, 158,242,792,415.32 — N600 billion less than the opening value in 2016.
Last year, Oscar Onyema, chairman of the NSE, had warned the lack of clarity in government will hinder investors from moving into the economy as they ought to.
“Giving much clarity around the various policies that are coming out, people will have more data point for making investment decision,” he had said.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last Friday attended Jumaat service at the presidential villa mosque after absenting from three consecutive meetings of the federal executive council (FEC). His absence caused rumours to ripple that he was gravely ill.
Some prominent Nigerians like Femi Falana; human rights lawyer, and Debo Adeniran; an activist, have called on the president to take urgent leave and attend to his health.