By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-A Lagos based Investment Lawyer; Barrister Bisi Iyaniwura Thursday declared as illegal the planned data sales by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Barrister Iyaniwura said this in an interview with InvestAdvocate in Lagos Nigeria.

“To start with, I would state out-rightly without any fear or favour that the Nigerian Stock Exchange is acting in a manner that is illegal and ultra biased.

According to him, the NSE doesn’t have the legal mandate to embark on what they are planning, “in the first instance, the question we need to ask ourselves is who the owner of the data is? It’s not the Nigerian Stock Exchange” he said.

Barrister Iyaniwura affirmed the NSE has only provided the platform for the production of the data which belongs to the Stockbrokers who are the Market Operators.

“Another question is who owns the Stock Exchange? It’s the Brokers, if there are no Brokers, there will be no Stock Exchange; so if these data are being produced by virtue of the interaction and interplay of the activities of the Stockbrokers, how can you tell them to pay for what they producer, its illegal and there is nowhere in the world that Stockbrokers pay for data they produce themselves” Barrister Iyaniwura said.

“I challenge them to tell me anywhere in the world that Stockbrokers pay for data they produce themselves” he said.

According to Barrister Iyaniwura, investors have the right to transparency in the Market and should get Market data prompt and regularly.

“If they cannot get the data as at when due; because what the Stock Exchange is saying is that the data would be sold after the days trading; then the data are no longer online and not real time data” he affirmed.

Barrister Iyaniwura said the Stockbrokers have the right to tell their customers who are the investors the trading position of the day; “they have the right to advice their customers based on that information and that does not translate to selling it” he said.

“If the Stock Exchange is saying they want to take money from sales of these data, there is no problem, but you cannot restrain me from advising my client on account of a public data, it’s a public data, what drives the Market anywhere in the world is information, transparency of reliable information: he said.

While reacting to Ade Bajomo’s, NSE’s Executive Director (ED), IT and Market Operations disclosure  on Monday to Media Men that the global standard for data distribution is $20,000; plus a fee for user, Barrister Iyaniwura said he doubts that people pay as much as $20,000 to get data from the Market.

“I doubt that people pay as much as $20,000 to get data from the Market, the question we will ask ourselves is what information, is the Stock Exchange going to be selling?, is it already analysed and filtered information; which is the work of Analysts, are they going to employ Analysts?” he queried.

According to him, the Stock Exchange maybe opening itself to litigation if they start the sales of data, “if I buy data from you and I find out that the data is wrong, I have the right to sue you for misinformation. If I’m paying for data, it becomes a commercial transaction”

He further affirmed that Market Information is easily accessible in places like the New York or London Stock Exchanges.

“It’s an inherent fraud we are going to witness, don’t forget the issue of the Trade Alert, I personally wrote a letter to the then DG Professor (Mrs.) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke that I will go to court on that issue, I have a right to how I want to be serviced, its going to be a fraud” Barrister Iyaniwura said.

The NSE had said that it will charge about $5,000 to Operators who seek to make use of data emanating from the Stock Exchange.

As at Wednesday’s Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting, Arunma Oteh, Director General (DG) of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosed to Journalists that the SEC will meet with the NSE and other stakeholders to look at the issue and find a way forward.

This is coming on the heels of the directive from the Nigeria‘s Exchange mandating operators in the Nigerian Capital Market (NCM) to stop daily distribution of Capital Market information to clients and investors.

According to the NSE, it wanted to make sure that the right and correct information is made available by the operators to the investing public.

Below are the different data services and charges from the NSE’s website:

NSE Equity Level 1: is a product that provides a snap shot of the Equity market and can either be available real time or historical. This data product contains (ISIN Code, Symbol, Security Name, Market, Sector, Traded Volume, Traded Value, Number of Transactions, Nominal Value, Price open, Price High, Price Low, and Current Value) and comes at a cost of N35, 000 for real time / live view of the market and N45, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Equity Level 2: is a more detailed product of the equity market with added features including the real time and historical display of (VWAP, Date Traded, Upper Circuit Limit, Lower Circuit Limit, Turnover Value, Relative Performance over a period of time, Total Buy Quantity, Total Sell Quantity, Top Volume, Bottom Volume, Total Market Cap, Top Market Cap, Bottom Market Cap, Top & Bottom 5 Trades per Volume & Value, Top & Bottom 5 Sectors per Volume & Value) inclusive of items in level 1. This product comes at a cost of N45, 000 for real time display and N55, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Trading Floor Level 1: is a product that allows subscribers to view live trades directly on the NSE website. Users simply log into the website and are able to view the trades as they are being executed. Contents in this product include (Symbol, Company Name, Buy – Vol, Buy – Price, Sell – Vol, Sell – Price, Total Vol Traded, Avg. Price, high Price, low Price, Net Change) and comes at a cost of N50, 000 for real time access and N60, 000 for 1 year’ worth of historical.

NSE Trading Floor Level 2: is a more advanced version of level 1 allowing brokers able to print their statements either real time or historical.  Inclusive of level 1 items this product also contain (Symbol, Company Name, Buy – Vol, Buy – Price, Sell – Vol, Sell – Price, Total Vol Traded, Avg. Price, high Price, low Price, Net Change) and comes at a cost of N70, 000.

NSE Performance Management: is a product that provides comprehensive and comparative market information for all traded securities on the Exchange, information contains; (Equity & Bond Total Volume and Value % Changes, Mergers, Acquisitions and Takeovers, No. of days traded YTD, No. of Listed Cos, Movement in stock prices, No. of New Issues, ASI, NSE 30, Sectoral Indices % Change, no. of registered brokers vs Active brokers, Avg. Trading Vol./Val./No. of Transactions, top & bottom 5 sectors per value, volume and Market Cap.) and comes at a cost of N50, 000 for real time access and N65, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Indices: is a product that provides comprehensive information about all the indices on the NSE market which include ASI, NSE30, Food&Bev, Banking, Insurance, Oil&Gas. The information contained in the product include (Category, Open, High, Low, Close, 52wk Hi, 52wk Lo, Market Cap, % to total Market Cap, Market Cap Contribution, Indices Turnover, % to Total Turnover Relative Performance) and is available at a cost of  N35, 000 for real time access and N50, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Debt Securities: is a product that gives subscribers comprehensive information about the bonds that are traded and showcased on the NSE market. This product contains (ISIN Code, Bond Symbol, Bond Type, Security Name, Maturity Name, Coupon Rate, Turnover, Par Value, Days Traded, Bid, Offer, Settlement Date, Market Value Traded, Market Volume Traded, Foreign Investment Market Cap, and Number of Transactions) and comes at a cost of N30, 000 real time and N40, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Corporate Level 1: is a product that allows subscribers view corporate profile information as well as trade information on the securities listed. Contents include (ISIN Code, Symbol, Market, Sector, Security Name, Trading Status, End of Accounting Yr., Free Float, Shares Outstanding, Market cap contribution, Current Val, Nom Val, 52wk Hi, 52wk Lo, Paid up Capital, Authorized Capital, Preference Shares, Date of listing on Exchange, Company Profile, Officers Profile, Auditors Profile, Registrars Profile). This service comes at a cost of N35, 000 for real time and N45, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Corporate Level 2: is a more informative product increasing accessibility to subscribers by providing the following (All Level 1 Items, Number of New Issues, Historical Results, Div Payment/Adjustment, Default Payment, Bonus History, Submitted Annual reports, Enterprise Val, EPS, EV/EBITDA, Price to Book Value, Div Per Share, Div Yield, Earnings Yield, ROE, Corporate Actions, Changed Names, Delisted Companies, Suspensions, Mergers, Acquisitions and Takeovers, AGMs, Foreign investment Market cap, Director Dealings) inclusive of level 1 and comes at a cost N45, 000 real time and N55, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Members Level 1: is a product that improves accessibility to subscribers by allowing them view information on the Broker Dealers on the floor that trade securities on behalf of clients i.e. profile information etc. contents of the product include (Company Name, Status, Date of incorporation, Date of Registration, Officers Profile, Trustees Profile, Auditors Profile, Names Broker/Dealers, Company Profile, Issued Share Capital) and comes at a cost of N35, 000 real time and N45, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Members Level 2: is a more improved version of level one and inclusive of level 1 items contains (Market Capitalisation, Complaints Details, No. of Transactions, Suspension details) and comes at a cost of N45, 000 real time and N55, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Corporate Actions: is a product that allows subscribers have access to several comprehensive reports that provide corporate actions for all securities listed on the Exchange, these reports include (Company Name, Symbol, Trading status, Sector Classification, End of Accounting Year, Proposed Div, Proposed Bonus, Expiry Date, Record Date, Date Paid of Payable) and comes at a cost of N45, 000 real time and N50, 000 for 1 years’ worth of historical.

NSE Custom Select: is a product that allows subscribers to select and build customized data reports online. Rather than users simply purchasing packages, they could build their own package by purchasing pieces of data required. The cost will be based overall on the number of requests. It comes at a cost of N400 per item and N50 per company and includes a maximum of 10 items and 100 companies.

NSE Historical Prices: is a product that provides  information on adjusted historical prices for one particular security over a period of time, this product contains (Symbol, Company Name, Date, Close Price, Adjusted Close Price, Vol. Traded, Val Traded) and comes at a cost of N30, 000 per year.

NSE Historical: is a product that allows subscribers have access to any data historical over a period of time this product includes (Symbol, Company Name, Date, Total Vol., Total Val, Total no of Transactions, Total Market Cap.) and comes at a cost of N35, 000 per year.