The Nigeria Stock Exchange, NGX, was hit by the global stock market crash on Monday. The stock market crash began last Friday, triggering a major sell off in the European and Asian markets.
The NGX was massively affected by this crash as it experienced a 0.27% decline in its all share index based on midday trading data. The biggest loser on the trading day was MTN Nigeria. The sell pressure on MTN pushed its stock price to its lowest level since 2021, declining by 5.79% as at noon yesterday.
Analysts say MTN’s price index decline was also caused by the recent service disruption in the wake of the August 1 #Endbadgovernance protest.
The global stock market crash has also hit the banking sector in Nigeria as Wema Bank experienced a 4.76% decline while GTCO lost about 1% its market capitalisation.
The stock market crash across the world has been triggered by growing unemployment and fears of a possible US recession. This has sent shock waves across the business world. Yesterday, the Japanese market recorded its worst trading day since 1987 with Mitsubishi crashing by over 14%, Mitsui and Co. falling by about 20%, while Sumitomo declined by about 18%.
The losses in the Asian market were also felt in Europe. The market went down by 2.26% with the FTSE also declining by 2.08%.
The big tech companies were also not spared as Nvidia went down by 20% from its all time high price. Also, Microsoft declined by 4.53%, Tesla lost 5.44% while Meta wend down by 4.92%.
The low level of foreign participation in the NGX helped minimise the extent to which it was hit by the global market crash. Hence, despite the decline recorded by MTN and some banks, the impact of the crash on the NGX has been relatively minimal.
