Despite the Nigerian capital market closing the year on a bullish trend, banking sector performance ended the year out of the loop as five banks saw their value downed by 5.5 per cent from N2.57tn in 2021 to N2.43tn at the close of trading in 2022.

According to data available on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, all five banks commonly referred to as Tier-1 banks had their share price fall at the end of 2022 compared to what they recorded in 2021.

Analysts who spoke with The PUNCH exclusively attributed the slump to the dearth of foreign investors in the Nigerian capital market.

Meanwhile, data by the NGX showed that GTCO led with an 11.54 per cent depreciation from N765bn in 2021 to N676.9bn in 2022. The bank also had its share price dropped from N26 to N23 per share. The bank lost 88.3bn in valuation in the 2022 trading year.

Access Bank closely followed with 7.5 per cent value depreciation. At the close of trading in 2022, its valuation slumped from N330.6bn in 2021 to N305.7bn. The bank’s share price also dipped from N9.3 to N8.5 kobo per share.

The United Bank for Africa also lost N13.7bn in market value in the 2022 trading year from N275bn in 2021 to N261bn in the corresponding year. Its share price also fell from N8.05 to N7.6 kobo per share.

Meanwhile, Zenith bank Plc lost 1.6 per cent market value from N789bn in 2021 to N777bn in 2022. The bank’s market share price shed N1.15 kobo per share.

First Bank Nigeria’s market valuation depreciated by 0.44 per cent to N407 bn in 2022 from N409bn in 2021. The bank’s share price also dropped to N10.9 kobo per share from N11.4 kobo per share.

Speaking on the decline, a capital market analyst, Wole Sam Adeyeye, attributed the performance to the absence of foreign investors who patronise banking stocks because of the high regulations of the sector.

He said, “The fall has to do with the foreign investors who have deserted Nigerian stocks. They don’t want to come to the country because of insecurity, the February elections, and forex issues.”

“If they are not ready to come, there may be no significant improvement in the banking stocks,” Adeyeye added.

On his part, an economy and capital market analyst, Rotimi Fakayejo, said the performance of the overall market was relatively low in 2022.

He noted that high-cap stocks, especially that of the telecom sector such as MTNN, Airtel, Seplat, and Geregu added value to the market.

Also, speaking with David Adonri of High Cap Securities said the fall in share price could be attributed to their stagnant fundamentals in the year ended.

According to him, “Their profits after tax in the three quarters did not change materially. Investors usually reward companies based on their expectations.”

He noted that even though the banks were stable in their profitability, they failed to grow materially as seen in other sectors.