With indications that the 71-year-old may begin rolling back some of the dramatic policy initiatives that once enthralled the markets, Nigerian stocks and Eurobonds are currently taking a break from Bola Tinubu's explosive start to life as president.
For the second day in a row, the stock market ended lower on Wednesday, and the nation's sovereign Eurobonds had the worst performance in emerging market credit.
According to BusinessDay's study of NGX data, investors reduced their daily trading of Nigerian equities from an average of N11.8 billion in June to an average of N5 billion in August.
This is a decrease in investor confidence of more than 100% since Tinubu's swift reforms, such as the liberalization of foreign exchange markets and the elimination of fuel subsidies, increased optimism about the nation's economic prospects.
Nigeria's Eurobonds have similarly gone from being the best in the world to being huge losers. The government's dollar-denominated bonds are now falling once more after rising throughout June.
On Wednesday, eight Nigerian bonds were among the 20 poorest performers internationally according to Bloomberg's EM Sovereign Total Return Index. The price of notes due in September 2033 fell 1.1 cents to $75.19, the lowest price since June. For 10 of the last 13 days, the value of the 2033 bonds has decreased.
Concerns about Tinubu slowing down or perhaps reversing some of his policy measures, including the expensive fuel subsidies he abolished in June, have prompted a new sell-off in Nigerian stocks and Eurobonds.
After the product's landing cost, which is currently N651.75 per litre and has surpassed the average retail price of N617 per litre, Tinubu declared that the government will halt further hikes to petrol prices. Among the most important factors in deciding theprice of gasoline has fallen significantly since the risky decision to float the currency in June, but it has been under even more pressure during the past week.
On the day of his inauguration, Tinubu quietly declared the end of the gasoline subsidy. A few days later, the national oil corporation, NNPCL, issued new gasoline pricing for Nigeria's major cities.
In spite of the Naira to Dollar Exchange Rate Adjustment and the NNPCL's announcement that it will not be raising the price of gasoline on Monday, Kyari was obliged to retract his earlier statements the increase in crude oil prices on the world market, which would have caused gasoline prices at the pump in some places to approach N1,000 per litre.
Though the NNPCL was compelled to say it will not be raising petrol prices despite the adjustment in the Naira to dollar exchange rate as well as the rise in international crude prices, which would have brought petrol pump prices to close to N1,000 a litre in some cities in the country, Kyari was forced to eat his own words on Monday.