By Udeme Ekwere

Friday, 24 Dec 2010

As the year draws to an end, players in the Nigerian Capital market have called on the regulators to ensure that they evolve policies targeted at growing the market.

According to them, this is because investors have lost a lot of money in the market in the last two years.

The National President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr. Boniface Okezie, said that it was important that regulators express caution in their actions and pronouncements, to avoid situations that could heighten instability in the nation‘s capital market.

According to him, some actions taken by the financial regulators this year, had caused panic sell-offs in the market, which accounted further for the downward trend of activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

He said, ”As we enter into the new year, it is our expectation that shareholders will have a better market experience than we did in 2010. It is important that policies aimed at growing confidence in the market are instituted, so that more investors would be attracted to the market.”

Okezie noted that investors were worried by the instability recorded in the market and it was important that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission worked towards reversing this trend.

The Chairman, Honeywell Plc, Mr. Oba Otudeko, had recently advised regulators to carry out activities geared towards building confidence, adding that the capital market thrived on confidence and good corporate governance.

He said that issues and policies that would promote confidence should be instituted, so that the capital market would return to stability.

 

Source: Punch