NSE predicts positive 2017 for stock market
By Kayode Ogunwale

 

 

WITH 6.17 per cent lose by investors in the Nigerian stock market in year 2016, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has predicted positive return for investors in the year 2017.
This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar Onyema during the 2016 market recap and outlook for 2017.
He anticipated that secondary market activity will be challenged initially as the impact of various policy measures work their way through the system.
He expected to see a revival of supplementary listings, return of the new issuance market, and potentially one Initial Public Offering (IPO) since the equity market is a forward indicator of the economy.
Onyema maintained that for market to recovered in 2017, the Nigerian capital market will have to do a better job at promoting its unique value proposition to both global and domestic investors.
According to him, “Monetary policy will continue to play a vital role in determining activity in the market. With forecasts for inflation expected to moderate due to the base effect, we believe that all things equal, monetary authorities will have more flexibility with respect to interest rates and FX regime. Hence good coordination between fiscal and monetary policy should result in resolution of aforementioned structural deficiencies and drive economic growth.”
Speaking on the bourse strategic outlook for 2017, Onyema said the NSE will take an adaptive approach to strategy execution in 2017.
“In the immediate future, the NSE will focus on achieving its goal of becoming a more agile and demutualized exchange and will fast track efforts towards developing innovative products such as exchange traded derivatives to provide investors with tools to better weather economic realities in 2017”, he said.
He stressed that the bourse we strengthen its thought leadership efforts with policymakers to drive policies that will free up the system and promote the ease of doing business in Nigeria. We believe that incentive schemes for sectors of the economy that can support a pivot to export led economy will be beneficial, and systematic removal of impediments to doing business and therefore reduction of leakages will attract private sector investments, Onyema said.
On a capital market liquidity standpoint, he said NSE will enhance cross-border integration efforts via African Securities Exchange Association’s (ASEA) African Exchange Linkage Project (AELP) model and the West African Capital Market Integration (WACMI) program.
He however said, NSE will continue its engagement efforts with the government to promote the listing of privatized state owned entities, as well as engage with the private sector issuers for listings across all of the product categories.