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Stockbrokers have called on the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido to always make complimentary policies that would grow the nation’s financial sector.
This observation is coming on the heels of the recent freefall in stock prices at the nation’s capital market which operators say may not be in connected with the recent directive from the apex bank on the audit of the universal banks aimed to ascertaining their level of exposure to the capital market and other key sectors.  
BusininessDay had reported authoritatively that banks were directing their subsidiaries to offload stocks held in quoted companies to shore up their books and beef up their assets.
Meanwhile, market operators recall that the downturn witnessed in the capital market last year stemmed from some policy pronouncements by the regulators which caused destabilisation in the system.  
According to the chief executive officer of a stockbroking firm, who spoke to BusinessDay on condition of anonymity, “the CBN governor should always “make complementary policies; he should know that we are in the same financial system; he is in the money market while we are in the capital market”.
An investor said that the CBN governor’s statement on the likely reduction in the number of existing banks to 15 have prompted investors to have a rethink on banks stocks. He observed that there was heavy offloading of bank stocks; an indication that investors perceived them as high risks.  Operators suggest the need for consultation between the two regulators of the money and capital markets when policy are to be made; noting that if there is consultation between them in terms of policy pronouncements, it would help a lot of things in the financial system and the economy as a whole.
Investors were seen to be in panic disposal of their bank stocks last week which caused significant contraction in market indicators. Market capitalization had closed at N5.9 trillion from N6.6 trillion in the previous week; indicating a loss of N700 billion in one week.  
Similarly, the all share index was down to close at 25,813.55 points from 28,910.19 in the same review period, having dropped 3,096.64 points. Overall, the market declined by 10.71 percent last week. Trading activities recorded a turnover volume of 2.64 billion shares valued at N20.64 billion as against 2.75 billion shares worth N25.34 billion.  
All NSE sectoral indices slumped except the oil and gas index. Banking sub-sector trading volume show consistent reduction over the period, this culminated in a huge loss. Banking sub-sector which recorded a turnover volume of 341.1 million shares valued at N3.6 billion to open the week on Monday June 22, 2009 by Tuesday the volume reduced to N328.8 million shares worth N3.6 billion. Wednesday the figure slumped further to 221.2 million shares worth N2.6 billion.  
Similarly, 129.8 million shares valued at N1.4 billion were traded on Thursday while the week ended with an increase to 231.3 million shares valued at N2.6 billion. As a result, all the bank stocks declined in value during the period under review.
Moreover, the sector as usual was still the most active with a traded volume of 1.25 billion shares worth N13.8 billion.  
NSE banking index dropped by 13.73 percent to close at 433.46; the NSE insurance index also declined by 7.53 percent to close at 369.91 while the NSE food and beverages index lost 7.0 percent to close at 491.03 points. Only the NSE oil and gas index recorded a marginal gain of 0.28 percent to close at 399.33 points.  
With pressure exerted on stocks, trading produced a total of 102 stocks which depreciated in value compared with only 12 stocks that appreciated during the week.