NO doubt, every investor heaved a sigh of relief as the banking reform came to a close penultimate week. They beheld with joy as prices inched up. The assurance by the past central bank governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo that “no bank in Nigeria shall collapse”, has unwittingly played itself out.

WITH the emphatic pronouncement of the government that it will not intervene in the stock market, operators, regulators and shareholders are figuring out the way forward. Those who were lax before the pronouncement have revved up their engines. And everything seems to be upbeat now.

The market continued its slide as the news of “no bail out” for the market continued to reverberate. Operators came to finally accept the fact that they and the regulators alone can resuscitate the market. Operators are strategizing on what to do to bring back the good old bullish days.

The weeks ahead

The weeks ahead are certainly going to be critical for the market. With the House of Representative insisting that the government must bail out the market and the government saying it has not got any money to do so, it certainly will be interesting times as we head into the last week of February. Another scenario that is going to make this weeks critical is the issue of market makers. The Securities and Exchange Commission (Sec) has approved two billion naira (N2bn) for the market, but the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that runs the market is insisting that the market makers have  N10 billion for effective impact on the market. NSE is also insisting that the financial backers of the market makers should be made known.   Both parties have a point in their argument. NSE is saying for effective impact, it has to be N10 billion for each of the five market makers.