Nigeria stock market hits near 8-year low

Nigeria’s stock index reached its lowest level in almost eight years on Thursday, Reuters data showed, as persistent global risk aversion keeps money out of frontier equities. The all-share index hit an intra-day low of 19,961.18 points, the lowest since December 24, 2003. Traders said funds have been moving out of Nigerian equity markets and into fixed income, where yields have improved on the back of a series of central bank interest rate hikes this year. “The negative sentiment has largely muted any sort of attractive valuations in the market … although investors agree that the market is cheap, there is just no key catalyst to trigger the market to re-rate shares,” said Akinbamidele Akintola, equity sales analyst at Renaissance Capital.
Nigeria’s equity index rose above 65,000 points in 2008 to become the best performing stock market in the world, but worsening global economic conditions have helped the index shed around 70 percent of its value. The Nigerian stock market is passing around $10 million of trade a day, from around $100 million in 2008, dealers said.