FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AND SHARE PRICE OF LISTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN NIGERIA: THE MODERATING ROLE OF FAIR VALUE ACCOUNTING

The study examines the moderating role of fair value accounting on the nexus between financial performance and share price of listed Nigerian manufacturing companies. The study explores 18 manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) spanning from 2017 to 2023. Secondary data was obtained from the annual audited report and accounts of the listed firms, which were available on their websites. Panel-Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) estimation technique was used due to its capability to correct for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation among firms and across time. Findings show that Earnings per Share (EPS), Book value per share (BVS), and Fair value accounting (FVI) have a positive and statistically significant effect on the share price of Nigerian manufacturing firms. This portrays share price to be a good reflection of change in EPS of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Furthermore, results show that fair value accounting has a statistically significant and negative effect on the relationship between EPS and share price. Nevertheless, this shows that fair value accounting reduces the nexus between financial performance and market valuation. This study stands out by exploring fair value accounting as a moderating factor within the value relevance framework, an approach that is rarely applied in studies of emerging markets like Nigeria.