Foremost capital market conglomerate, Meristem Securities, recently launched its economic outlook for the second half of the year. The report titled Unmasking Value in a Scourge thoroughly analyzes the position of the global and domestic economy, with a comprehensive focus on trends and activities within various economic sectors that could help avert a prolonged global recession.
The outlook highlights in-depth the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant consequences to capital flow reversals, external reserves, exchange rate, inflation, and other macroeconomic variables as it relates to the domestic economy.
At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic mid-March, Meristem had offered forward guidance to investors on strategic investment prospects that existed within the capital market, emphasizing that pocket of opportunities existing within the fixed income environment. In this new outlook report, it further extends the scope of valuable strategies that investors could adopt to realize value across various asset classes.
“The Meristem research outlook has been able to unearth profound insights for our clients, investors, and the general public, who seek to revise their investment strategies for the remaining part of the year,” said Sulaiman Adedokun, Deputy Managing Director at Meristem Securities. “We congratulate our efficient team of analysts who have been able to delineate every section of global and domestic economies to offer a refreshing view of the investment landscape and thus predict a course of action amid a pandemic that has exhausted some global and economic superpowers,”
Responding to questions from journalists about the outlook for various sectors of the Nigerian economy, Adedokun said “The business models of some companies have benefitted from the outbreak of the pandemic. For example, healthcare, telecoms, and technology stocks saw their share price appreciate while firms operating in sectors like oil & gas, aviation and hospitality were the worst hit.
“Notwithstanding, our outlook for the telecoms sector is largely positive, given that the implementation of social distancing and remote working policies have accelerated the adoption of technological solutions across the country. We expect this to positively impact data revenue in subsequent periods. However, the growth in topline will be tempered by weaker voice revenue (which contributes c.65 percent of revenue) due to shrinking subscriber wallets, along with growing adoption of cheaper VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) alternatives like WhatsApp calls.”
Meristem offers a wide a range of services that cater to all classes of investors regardless of the stage in their financial journey, including stockbroking, wealth management, and financial advisory to help clients to access various opportunities within the capital markets and via Meritrade, its online stockbroking platform. With the app, investors can trade stocks from anywhere around the world as well as better manage their shares and enjoy access to the most exclusive market research.
Meristem for the past 16 years has been consistent in value creation and innovation within the capital market space. In 2018, the Nigerian Stock Exchange recognized the company as the best digital broker of the year. In 2018 also, Meristem became the first Nigerian asset management firm to attain compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) by the CFA Institute. In the same year, Meristem received two nominations from Business Day, for the best Money Market Fund and Equity Fund. In 2017, Meristem handled the single largest trade in the history of the NSE.
The firm has remained a leading player in Nigeria’s competitive investment market with a solid reputation as a highly professional and client-centric firm, helping to take their clients farther.
