The prolonged bearish sentiment in the equity market is eroding its Investor’s wallet day after day.

The investors did all the study and reasearch, invested in the the right firms with the hope that their investments would appreciate, but the downward spiral of the stock market has left the investors and consumers agonized and depressed.

Because the political instability was not enough, the “MTN and Banks” saga added to the whole negative drama, resulting in the equity market having to face the brunt of all this. To an outsider it might seem like a very entertaining TV show with a lot of drama and suspense, but to the people involved, it is just one big horror show, which is just getting scarier with each passing day.

2018 has officially surpassed 1998 as the “worst pre-election year, stock market wise”. In 1998 the worst YTD decline observed was 11.98%, and 2018 boasts of a YTD of - 16.05 % so far, keeping in mind that we still expect choppy waters ahead, thus further declines are inevitable.

The MSCI frontier market index lost about $81 billion, and interestingly Nigeria is one of the biggest contributors, accounting for about $ 9.38 billion ( 11.59% ) of the total losses.

2018 has been a rather peculiar year, with the equity market reaching its peak in January, the market has fallen by 25.82% since then . Theoretically, the market has officially entered the Bear tenor and hence is wincing in pain after the royal plummeting.

Investors have lost N 16.5 billion on an average per day since Jan 19, this coupled with stagnation of wages has put an extensive strain on consumer spending.

The Nigerian market has been hit by a bolder thanks to the foreign investors (accounting for 49.47% of the total stock market holding ) selling down the Nigerian equities depleting the external reserves rapidly.The reserves are now hanging by a thread made by the rally in the crude oil prices which provided enough foreign exchange earnings to save the reserves from completely falling off the bandwagon.

This oil buffer is what has helped CBN so far to defend its currency in this tit-for-tat trade war causing a massive sell-off in EM and frontier market currencies. Although Naira has remained stable so far in this time of pressure, it is unlikely to predict how long the CBN will be able to save the currency, after the currency already has a history of depreciation. The external reserves are already showing financial curtailment following a $ 1.72 billion drop in reserves between July’18 and Aug’18.

On Wednesday the 3.4 % drop by NSEASI was the largest drop since Mar’18.


reposting from Easykobo.com

FUNNIEST STOCK STORIES:

Reposting from EasyKobo.com

Nintendo Goes Up And Down with Pokemon GO

For those of you who have been living in cave, Pokemon GO is a branch of the farcically popular Pokemon franchise. Pokemon GO conquered the world and Nintendo's stock surged into the mesosphere. Their stock price grew by 50% obtaining over a billion dollars a day, which was about $10 billion in less than a week, and the pile of money might have hit Mars if not for one small problem; Pokemon GO wasn't really made by Nintendo. And so, Nintendo had to go out and tell everyone that Pokemon GO is actually made by a different company, but by then People had already bought 10-figure sums of shares. It's made by The Pokemon Company and Niantic, both of which are shown every time you start the game. Nintendo has only a 32 percent share in the whole thing and had already accounted for any possible profits in their earlier projections.

The stock prices plunged by more than 30% after people found out the news which they could have “discovered” anyway by a simple Google search or a play-through of the first two seconds of the game. But people with long memories will notice this fall was less than the rise. A global stampede chasing imaginary cellphone pets into the wrong company shifted a company's worth by $10 billion and, after realizing the blunder, the stock markets said, "Eh, keep half! .”
Remember that the next time you go hungry over student debt.

2. Stock Surge Gangnam Style

In October 2012, a South Korean semiconductor-testing device manufacturer DI Corporation's shares surged over 800 percent. what do you think could have been the reason? Had they developed a new smartphone to communicate with the dead? Had they invented a gadget that kills cancer cells every time someone clicks on Beyonce’s music video? No, the real answer is that this factory that makes actual things saw its stock price octuple because its chairman and lead shareholder is the father of PSY (Park Jae-Sang), singer of "Gangnam Style," who also owns shares.

What is even more insane is that, the stock price has wobbled like crazy ever since, but it's never gone back down to the previous level. A completely unrelated company has enjoyed years of trading at a minimum of double its old value because of a pop song that is 30 percent "Heeeeeey ... sexy ladies!" They could have built an entire second factory, quadrupled their production, and still not been sure of the same increase. I mean, yes, DI Corporation already sounds like an amazing cyberpunk show where corporations legally count as people and there's one future cop that doesn't play by the rules. The next time someone says YouTube views don't matter, hug them and weep a single tear for them.

3. What is there in a name?

A company called Nest Labs is basically Skynet for the home. They manufacture self-learning smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and security systems, and they were recently given thermostat control. Also, they're Wi-Fi-enabled and absolutely drenching in your personal data. This may be why Google scooped Riche rich’s money to dump all over them . Nest Labs was bought for $3.2 billion by Google and people ended up buying so many shares that it soared to 1900 percent of its original value. The irony? Nest Labs isn't listed on the stock market as NEST. Nest Labs isn't even listed on the stock market, because it's a private company.

NEST is actually Nestor Inc., a company that used to make traffic enforcement systems for state agencies, emphasis on “used to”.The company went bankrupt and sold all their assets five years before this ludicrous stock surge. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Funnily enough this has happened before with NEST, when Nest Labs released smoke alarms and the NEST stock skyrocketed by 10,000 percent. Nevertheless over 5 million shares were traded.

4. The Million-Dollar Typo

In 2005, Mizuho Securities wanted to sell a single share in J-Com at 610,000 yen (about $5,000), instead they accidentally dumped 610,000 shares at 1 yen each. Mizuho immediately tried really heard to undo the order but the Tokyo Stock Exchange vehemently refused. Even though it was 41 times the shares J-Com really had. If you try to type 5,000 characters into a tweet, the program will stop you, because your dogs' latest pictures have better computer safeguards than the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Their adamance on letting the mistake stand caused Mizuho Securities to lose $345 million off their value and sent a shockwave through the rest of the market. Finally, The president of the Tokyo Stock Exchange was compelled to resign after he refused to hit Ctrl-Z . Capitalism showed its true form that time, when other brokerage houses showed unanimity by exploiting the mistake, and making millions of dollars out of it. Remember this the next time you are kicking yourself over a twitter typo

5. The 6-Billion-Dollar Mistake

One social media story really blew out of proportion for almost nothing. CYNK Technology, a company which was cryptically sent to you by The Riddler, suddenly grew 25,000 percent by value rising to over $6 billion in value, despite not existing. The company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filling reads like a fairytale story made up of magic spells, but the worst part is that it worked! CYNK Technology was originally Introbizz.com, based on the idea of charging to introduce people to each other which is ironically the exact opposite of every successful social-media website. The company had a lot of thrill. but no assets, revenue, employees or anything actually. It was just an illusion that increased form 6 cents a share to more than $ 20 before crashing. Two of the nine people involved in this deception, pleaded guilty after extracting about a quarter of a billion dollars from this and 40 other firms.

CRAZIEST STOCK MARKET STORIES EVER!!!

Reposting from EasyKobo.com

There are some stock market stories that are so unbelievable that you need to keep re-checking them to make sure its not fake. Like the story of how a biotech firm kept oscillating between public and non- public, or when an analyst was mocked by a CEO on a public earning wall.
Below are some of the stories ranked from "least crazy" to "most crazy."

10. Biogenics Goes Public Then Un-Public In A Never-Before-Seen IPO Fail
Israeli biotech company Vascular Biogenics debuted on the Nasdaq on August 1 but then went un public on August 8
The oscillation was related to what the company called, "an unexpected situation in which a substantial existing US shareholder did not fund payment for share it previously agreed to purchase in the offering.”

9. CEO Mocks Analyst on Public Webcast because his Stock-Price Target is too low
On Cliffs Natural's October earnings conference call, the CEO Lourenco Goncalves dismissed a question from Wells Fargo analyst Sam Dubinsky because Goncalves did not like the price target on a stock that Dubinsky had. Goncalves responded to Dubinsky's question, by saying "You have a $4 price target and you think we can't sell assets, so I'm going to take the next question, I'm not going to answer you."

8. A Fund With The Ticker 'CUBA' Went Bonkers
In December, the White House made a decision to normalize their relations with Cuba.
Right after this this announcement, the Herzfield Caribbean Basin Fund, which trades under the ticker ‘CUBA’, soared by almost 30%.
The fund's mission is to invest in Caribbean-based opportunities, and although it currently has no holdings directly in Cuba, the fund believes its holdings are positioned to gain from an end to the US embargo against the country.

7. Riots In Ferguson caused a shoot in TASER’s shares
In August, when Michael Brown an African American teenager was shot by an American police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, riots broke out.
Due to this, TASER’s ( the company manufactures wearable body cameras for law enforcement agents) rallied. These developments pressed the municipalities to put cameras on their police officers.TASER shares rally has into the year-end, and in 2014 the stock added almost 70%.

6. This Biotech Stock Quadrupled After Positive Trial Results
Shares of a company called Intercept Pharmaceuticals grew by more than 400% in just a few days in January 2014 owing to them stopping their clinical trial of a liver disease drug claiming that there was evidence that treatment was working.
In August, Intercept shares rose again, gaining 45% in a day after they sent out another round of good news regarding its drug candidates. Intercept shares gained more than 120% in 2014.

5. Oil Services Company Civeo Crashed Twice
In September 2014, Civeo, an oil services company that provides housing accommodations for drilling and mining projects, saw a crash of 45% in its stock after they abandoned their plan to convert to a real estate investment trust, or REIT.
Following that year, the stocks further went down by 50% in a day when it deferred its dividend and slashed its capital investment amidst the plunge in oil prices. Interestingly, Civeo had just become public in June 2014, when it was spun out from Oil States International, and in a span of less than a year it suffered two major blows.

4. A company that fabricated 90% of its revenue collapsed after being called a fraud.
A Spanish tech company Let’s Gowex, which provided free Wifi services filed for voluntary bankruptcy five days after being called a fraud by Gotham City Research.The company’s embarrassed CEO sent an apology email to its employees and quoted Rudyard Kipling to make up for the value of the company slashing from 1.4 Billion euro to, well, nothing.

3. Hazmat Suit Company Went Bananas During The Ebola Scare
This must be the biggest silver lining behind the whole Ebola freak out. Back in fall, when everyone was scared about Ebola, the traders found a golden way to play this - Hazmat Suits- Remember Ebola?
Back in the fall, everyone in the US was freaked out about Ebola, and traders found a big way to play this: hazmat suits.The shares of Lakeland Industries’, a small hazmat suit and protective gear reached the international space station in October 2014, by gaining more than 60% in one day.
Eventually, Lakeland shares, which were trading at around $6-$7 per share that summer, rose as high as $30. By the end of 2014, the stock was just below $10 a share and gained more than 80% that year.

2. When a Shoe Company’s CEO disappeared with the company’s cash.
Shares of s shoe company Ultrasonic's fell more than 70% after they announced that their CEO and COO disappeared over a weekend in September and that the company's also gone.
Following week the company fired its CEO but still dint get a tight grip on what really happened.

1 A Hedge Fund’s dizzying explanation of how Olive Garden is wasting money
In September 2014, hedge fund Starboard Value published a presentation a whopping 294 slides listing the problems they had with how Darden Restaurants was operating Olive Garden.
The complaints included serving too many breadsticks, cooking pasta without salting the water and using nice takeout containers.Finally, in October 2014, Darden’s CEO was ousted.