Investors who put money into Standard chartered Wealth management business are mostly worried about “volatility”, chief executive officer, Wealth Management, an arm of Standard Chartered Nigeria said.
“In terms of maximizing wealth, the issue of volatility is what our clients are most worried about”, Simpa Adaba, head, Wealth Management Nigeria for Standard Chartered told BusinessDay in Lagos.
“If you have invested in something, it is only natural that when you see the price move in a different way, you tend to worry” he added.
Adaba explained that despite this worry in the mind of investors, the firm through its expertise has been able to proffer sound investment advice to ease them.
According to him, the last thing an investor would ever wish for is to throw their money somewhere without speaking to an investment professional.
“I think we have demonstrated strongly our investment advisers through our relationship managers in speaking to clients, giving them necessary context that because something is going down differently as expected, does not mean you will have to jump out”.
Nigerian stocks are experiencing their worst time as investors pile into the fixed income space neglecting equities despite impressive earning results coming in from publicly listed companies. Nigerian equities have been trading on a negative trajectory of 0.93 percent this year.
The rush into risk-free instrument has helped send yields to lower lows. Yields on one year and 10 years bonds averaged 14.12 percent, according to FMDQ data.
“I think it is a natural reaction, that in times of volatility and uncertainties, you see people moving to where they consider safe to a great extent and the fixed income is a surer bet. Also, so many of them have a history of the equities market in Nigeria so there is a flight to safety”, Adaba said.
However, he noted that focus always remains not just on the product but the clients making them have easy access to our product. “We basically don’t manufacture our products, we focus more on partnering with fund houses to try and get best in class on what our clients have an appetite for,” he explained
On the outlook for the bond market, Steve Brice, Global wealth management CEO, Standard Chartered said, the environment looks positive in the short run for bond investors in emerging markets due to the Federal reserve plans of reversing their expectation of a rate hike this year along with the US and China’s plan to strike a deal on the trade dispute in April this year.
