Capital market sustains upswing amid subsidy removal, forex crisis

Apart from the unusual response of the market to elections, investors also responded to the increasing inflation by playing more in the equity market because it was giving higher returns than the fixed-income market.

Corporate raids

Just as the audited 2022 financial reports of listed companies came in, the market woke up to the news that billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, had bought about 5.52 per cent stake in Transnational Corporation Plc.

While the share acquisition was welcomed by the company and minority shareholders, he soon sold to them the Chairman of Transcorp, Tony Elumelu. It also served as a harbinger of what was what to happen a few weeks down the line.

On July 7, a historic trade took place on the Nigerian Exchange Limited as a company linked to a former Chairman of FBN Holdings, Oba Otudeko, bought over four billion units of shares of the financial institution.