By Amaka Ifeakandu
Lagos
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has blamed the poor performance of the nation’s equity market on currency volatility and uncertainty in global crude oil price.
The Chief Executive Officer of The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, while reviewing market performance in 2015 and out look in 2016 said the NSE All Share Index by 17.4 per cent.
He said that despite weak emerging market growth rate, coupled with domestic security challenges, declining oil prices, the Nigerian economy is still expected to have grown by an estimated four per cent for 2015 illustrating Nigeria’s resilence.
He however said that the NSE Banking index performed worst in 2015, declining by 23.6 per cent, followed by NSE 30 index and the NSE main board index which down 17.6 per cent each.
Onyema stated that turnover velocity fell through 2015 by 17 per cent with equity turnover, dropping by 28.8 per cent to N952.8 billion ($4.8 billion) and foreign and local participation rate was 54.24 and 45.76 per cent respectively in total value traded.
He said that the average daily turnover always decline by 28.5 per cent.
He explained that the downturn in 2015 has continued in the current year, adding that 2016 anticipated to be a challenging year for the capital market and the domestic economy