LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — The start of 2016 broke away from the well-known ‘January effect’ – a term coined to describe the seasonal irregularity witnessed in the financial markets over the years: the propensity of stock prices to increase during the first month of the year. In contrast, global equity markets had to navigate an ugly storm, as sell-offs ensued, driven by sentiment rather than fundamentals. Rekindled concerns over global growth and the state of China’s economy, as well as the fresh lows seen in commodity prices, resulted in one of the worst results in history for global equity markets recorded in the month of January. African equity markets were not spared from this global bear sentiment. So, the key questions are what is the short-term and long-term African equity outlook? (amidst uncertainty) and where does opportunity lie in African equity markets? 

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