Domestic investors can reduce the dominance of foreign investors in the Nigerian capital market by participating more, Capital Bancorp Plc has said.

The Chairman, Capital Bancorp, Mr. Olutola Mobolurin, said this in Lagos ahead of the company’s 25th anniversary, which is scheduled to take place on October 4, 2013.

He said, “There is need to win the confidence of investors back to the market. Nigerians need to come back to the market so that foreign influence in the market will decline.”

Mobolurin explained that while an investment in equities was risky, it was also rewarding.

“The risks should not frighten people, they should seek professional advice when they want to make investment in the market and ensure that you take the risk you can absorb,” he added.

Commenting on the forthcoming anniversary celebration, he said despite the tough environment in which the company operated, it had succeeded in increasing its balance sheet from N2.3m when it commenced operations in 1988 to N3.5bn with shareholders fund amounting to N2bn.

Speaking further, he said, “When we started our equipment leasing business, there was finance houses crisis as at that time but we survived the crisis and we were able to give dividend because we are doing value added services, giving equipment leasing services even to finance houses.

“We have done innovative instruments in the capital market. We were the first to issue FGN bond series 1 and 11. We were advisers to Federal Government on motor assembly plant; we have undertaken equities issues, done innovative instruments, convertible preference shares.”

Meanwhile, activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange closed positive on Wednesday with the NSE All-Share Index rising by  0.24 per cent to close at 36,143.56 basis points. Similarly, the market capitalisation of the listed equities gained 0.24 per cent to close at N11.512tn.

Source: Punch (by Simon Ejembi)