Stock Market Performance of Some Selected Nigerian Commercial Banks amidst Economic Turbulence

The climate in which business and economic activities in general were conducted in the period 2007 to 2010 could best be described as traumatic. Yet the prevailing climate for the Nigeria’s banking industry was unique as the global financial crisis coincided with the domestic banking crisis to generate economic turbulence. This research is an attempt to appraise the performance of the stocks of a sample of Nigerian commercial banks over the period 2007 to 2010 that was characterized by turbulence. This research is a survey employing an ex post facto design for data collection. A sample of eight banks – four each from the first generation and the new generation banks were selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure; a combination of stratified sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Secondary data – the stock market prices, were collected from the Nigerian Stock Exchange activity list. Data analysis involved both trend analysis and One-Way ANOVA. It was consequently established that stock market performance of all the sampled banks declined especially from about May 2008. Furthermore, the financially weak or troubled banks showed greater weakness in stock market performance than the healthy ones. It was concluded that environmental threat to investment fortune might have caused investors to lose confidence in the prospect for future growth which might have prompted them to reduce their shareholdings. It was therefore recommended that government and agencies concerned with the management of the national economy should be proactive in dealing with issues that might constitute potential threat to investment interests. Key Terms: Business Performance, Economic Turbulence, Global Economic Meltdown, Nigerian Commercial Banks, Performance of Banks, Stock Market Price