OPERATORS in the Nigerian capital market have commenced massive sales of shares, following the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that banks’ risk asset portfolio in the stock market must not exceed  10 per cent before September 1.

It will be recalled that about 70 per cent of the banks toxic asset, totalling about N2.5 trillion, was occasioned by margin loans to stockbrokers.

Investigation by the Nigerian Tribune on Wednesday showed that since Friday, last week, when the brokers started the massive sales to offset their debt to the banks, investors in the market had loss about N200 billion.

Some brokers, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, lamented that despite the improved results from quoted companies, off-loading of shares to meet up with the September deadline had further worsened the woes of investors.

According to them, this was the period when companies were turning in improved result and it was expected to impact in the market indices, but, on the contrary, market indicators continued to drop significantly.

Reacting to the trend, the former president, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Mr Dipo Aina, said the reform in the banking sector was still affecting the market because the 60 to 65 percent of the total market capitalisation of the NSE was skewed to the banking subsector.

He, however, admitted that the global market was experiencing a downturn, but added that the market was yet to feel the impact of the liquidity in the banking sector.

In his comment, the Managing Director of Dependable Securities Limited, Mr Chinenyen Anyanwu, said the CBN directive that banks should not allow their holdings to exceed 10 per cent was impacting negatively on the performance on the market.

He argued that the directive was not timely, as the September deadline was a short period for the banks.

Corroborating his view, another stockbroker, who craved anonymity, admitted that the major banks were offloading because of the directives.

He said there was massive offloading of shares in the market presently, but, however, noted that those that would buy the stocks would smile in the long run.