Equities Market In Bear Runs As MPR Hike Witnesses N15bn Loss

The equities market of the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX), Tuesday saw a negative benchmark interest rate surge, as market capitalisation declined by N15 billion at the close of trading activities.

BrandNewsDay reports that the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation depreciated from the previous day, Monday’s highs of 49,189.32 points and N26.532trillion respectively to 49,161.45 points and N26.517trillion.

Moving on, the market’s positive return year-to-date (YTD) decreased to +15.09 per cent.

The domestic bourse ended lower yesterday reversing some of the gains of Monday’s session as the benchmark index lost 0.11 per cent to close at 49,163.81 points.

Investors interest in ZENITHBANK (+1.00%) was offset by selloffs in GTCO (-0.53%), FBNH (-0.99%), ACCESSCORP (-4.55%) and UBA (-1.39%) putting the market in the red.

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions increasing by 87.77 per cent. A total of 139.24million shares valued at N1.60billion were exchanged in 3,421 deals.

TRANSCORP (+0.00%) led the volume chart with 3 8.46m units traded, while ZENITHBANK (+1.00%) led the value chart in deals worth N710.83million.

Market breadth closed negative at a 1.21-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. MAYBAKER (-9.79%) topped sixteen (16) others on the laggard’s table, while MULTIVERSE (+10.00%) led thirteen (13) others on the leader’s log.

“The NGX All-Share Index has been in correction territory for just over a month and is set to record its first quarterly fall since second quarter (Q2) 2021. Nigerian equity investors seem to either be ignoring this year’s solid earnings growth or demanding more earnings growth from companies,” said Coronation Research analysts in their September 26, note, titled “Is there still value in Nigerian stocks?”

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday after its two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja, raised the benchmark interest rate, known as Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 15.5 per cent, the third straight hike this year.

The CBN also raised the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) to 32.5 per cent from 27.5 percent.