By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria has emerged as the tenth most stock market-obsessed country worldwide, a new study made available to Business Post has revealed.
The study, carried out by UK financial services provider, CMC Markets, examined Google Trends data of search terms frequently used by people interested in stocks and trading.
These terms were then combined to give each English-speaking country a ‘total search score’ to discover which countries have been the most interested in stocks in the past 12 months.
In Nigeria’s case, the country scored 218 out of a possible 700, a breakdown which showed that phrase searches for ‘stocks’ raked in 13 points, ‘buy stocks’ was 20 points, ‘invest in stocks’ made up 31 points, and ‘stock market’ amounted for 18 points.
Other parameters included ‘interest rate’ (16 points), ‘day training’ (45 points), and ‘swing trade’ at 75 points.
The study also revealed that Singapore ranks highest as the country most interested in stocks and trading. With a total search score of 555, Singapore topped the list for its population, having the highest search levels for the phrases ‘stocks’, ‘buy stocks’, and ‘interest rate’ worldwide. Additionally, the population of Singapore searches for ‘stock market’ the third most worldwide, behind the United States and India.
India is second on the list, with a total search score of 492. India has the second-highest proportion of its population searching for both the phrases ‘stock market’ and ‘swing trading’, placing the country second in the ranking.
Canada was the third country most interested in stocks worldwide. The North American country has the second-highest level of searches for the term ‘invest in stocks’, in addition to being the country searching for ‘buy stocks’ the third most worldwide, giving Canada a total search score of 462.
The United States placed fourth overall. With a total search score of 453 out of a possible 700, the USA has the highest level of searches for both terms ‘invest in stocks’ and ‘stock market’, and the fourth-highest level of searches for the term ‘buy stocks’.
The United Arab Emirates was fifth in the ranking, with a total search score of 374. The study revealed that the UAE has the fourth-highest search levels for the term ‘swing trading’ and is the fifth country most interested in ‘day trading’.
Australia was sixth on the list, with a total search score of 338. Australia has the sixth-highest proportion of its population searching for the phrase ‘invest in stocks’ and is interestingly the country most interested in ‘day trading’ worldwide, meaning that they may like to hold their stocks for the shortest period of time!
The top ten is rounded out by South Africa ranking in seventh place and New Zealand in eighth, followed by the United Kingdom and Nigeria in ninth and tenth place, respectively.
CMC Markets is a UK-based financial services company that offers online derivative trading products such as spread betting and contracts for differences across world markets such as shares and foreign exchange.
Modupe Gbadeyanka