New Bloomberg report to swing votes for Atiku from formal sector, others—Experts
Fresh report from formal sector news conglomerate, Bloomberg that a change in government from tomorrow’s presidential election will spark off steam and bullish activities on the nation’s economy is set to tilt key votes from operators to former Vice president Atiku Abubakar.
Otherwise, the report further means that investors both foreign and indigenous may make progress if opposition PDP wins.
Lead money managers and banks including Alliance Bernstein LP and Citigroup Inc. according to Bloomberg are upbeat that a change in government would power steam to the investment space which can jerk up GDP even more than currently projected with salutary policy reforms coming with the PDP government.
The main equity index in Nigeria is heading for its best month in more than a year. But its 3.1 percent gain in 2019 is still less than half the 7.9 percent jump for MSCI’s gauge of emerging-market stocks. Foreign investors haven’t warmed to Nigeria despite rising prices for oil, its main export, and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s dovish tilt, which has fueled demand for riskier assets.
Market pundit, Ayodele Salami, who manages about $400 million of African stocks as chief investment officer of London-based Duet Asset Management Ltd said “If the elections pass smoothly, we should see a rally regardless of who wins.”
Continuing, he averred that “But an Atiku victory could mean even more of a leg up to the relief rally. That would be on the expectation that there will be a reform agenda. His campaign has been very much focused on pro-market policies.”
The stage is currently charged as whereas New York-based globally rated Teneo Intelligence, forecasts Atiku win, another firm in same state, Eurasia Group predicts Buhari will be re-elected.
Also, Adriaan du Toit, a London-based economist at AllianceBernstein, managing $550 billion of assets argued that “We suspect the market would cheer an Abubakar victory simply because it would shake up the uninspiring status quo.”
He added that “Abubakar has implied that he would support a more flexible exchange rate for the naira, a precondition for the country to be added back into global bond indexes.”
More to Atiku side, Kunle Ezun, an analyst at Ecobank in Lagos said “An Atiku victory will trigger a rally because a lot of people expect that he is going to push through his promises, but a Buhari win will just mean a steady market.
