March 2, 2017/ARM Securities

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2016: The Year That Was For investors in the Nigerian financial market, the year 2016 was a year to forget – an ‘annus horribilis’ to be more exact. Everything that could go wrong did. Stocks closed the year marginally red, even worse when adjusted for sharp depreciation in the naira. Though yields in fixed income markets surged as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) tightened monetary policy – these gains were trivial in real terms after inflation printed at eleven year highs for most of 2016.  Given the deadbeat economic landscape, Nigerian equities closed 2016, the third consecutive year, in negative territory as weak corporate earnings, continued foreign reluctance to naira equities, rising yields on government securities and feeble local participation weighed on the domestic equities market.