By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited suffered a 0.18 per cent on Tuesday after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) further increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 200 basis points or 2.00 per cent to 24.75 per cent.
This action, which was expected as predicted by some analysts, forced some investors to liquidate their stocks for attractive and risk-free assets, especially government securities.
The central bank plans another sale of treasury bills today, Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at the primary market and with the interest rate hike of yesterday, the stop rates are expected to be elevated.
In preparation for this, traders at the equity market booked profit, causing the bourse to finish bearish due to sell-offs in the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors, which lost 0.12 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively.
However, the insurance space gained 0.23 per cent, and the banking index improved by 0.7 per cent, while the energy counter closed flat.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 183.88 points to 103,952.47 points from 104,136.35 points, and the market capitalisation depreciated by N104 billion to N58.776 trillion from N58.880 trillion.
Despite the loss, investor sentiment was bullish as the bourse ended with 27 appreciating equities and 24 depreciating equities, implying a positive market breadth index.
UPDC declined by 9.87 per cent to trade at N1.37, United Capital lost 8.75 per cent to settle at N21.90, Sovereign Trust Insurance slumped by 8.33 per cent to 44 Kobo, FTN Cocoa retreated by 8.00 per cent to N1.61, and Livestock Feeds moderated by 7.82 per cent to N1.65.
On the flip side, Abbey Mortgage Bank gained 10.00 per cent to quote at N2.42, Consolidated Hallmark advanced by 9.92 per cent to N1.44, Juli rose by 9.80 per cent to N8.63, May & Baker expanded by 9.69 per cent to N6.00, and International Energy Insurance chalked up 9.63 per cent to quote at N1.48.
During the session, 374.4 million stocks valued at N11.3 billion were traded in 8,689 deals compared with the 306.8 million stocks valued at N11.4 billion traded in 9,343 deals a day earlier, representing a rise in the trading volume by 22.03 per cent, a decline in the trading value by 0.88 per cent, and a fall in the number of deals by 7.00 deals.
The busiest equity for the trading day was GTCO with a turnover of 67.2 million units worth N3.3 billion, UBA exchanged 51.5 million units valued at N1.4 billion, Zenith Bank sold 42.4 million units for N1.7 billion, Access Holdings transacted 33.3 million units worth N808.3 million, and Fidelity Bank traded 30.0 million units valued at N300.3 million.
Adedapo Adesanya