Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Nigeria’s stock market swayed southwards on Tuesday following mild profit-taking and cautious trading by investors, who were waiting for the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The apex bank had commenced the important gathering, the fourth this year, on Monday and the Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, was expected to announce the decision of the team.
Some analysts had predicted that the benchmark interest rate would be retained at 11.5 per cent, while others projected that it would be tampered with, especially because of the decline in inflation rate in June for the third consecutive month.
Investors knew that the outcome of the meeting would not be out before the closure of the market for the day and to play safe, they had to monitor the equity market from the sidelines. This gave room for some of them to book profit from the gains of the previous trading sessions.
This depleted the market yesterday by 0.12 per cent. Business Post reports that it was the first loss the local bourse was recording in six trading sessions.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 46.93 points to settle at 38,802.15 points versus the previous 38,849.08 points.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation decreased at the close of transactions by N24 billion to finish at N20.217 trillion compared with N20.241 trillion it ended on Monday.
It was observed that during the session, investors reduced their level of activity, causing the trading volume to go down by 1.41 per cent to 243.1 million units from 246.6 million units.
Also, the trading value shrank by 15.32 per cent to N1.9 billion from N2.2 billion, while the number of deals decreased by 7.49 per cent to 4,326 deals from 4,676 deals.
When the trading session was ended, Access Bank was the most traded stock with the sale of 21.8 million shares valued at N204.4 million and was trailed by Wema Bank, which sold 21.3 million stocks worth N17.9 million.
UPDC transacted 14.6 million equities worth N18.3 million, UAC Nigeria traded 14.4 million shares valued at N162.2 million, while UBA transacted 12.6 million shares worth N99.1 million.
On the price movement chart, UPDC REIT was the worst price loser as its value went down by 6.67 per cent to settle at N5.60, while Unity Bank lost 6.45 per cent to trade at 58 kobo.
NPF Microfinance Bank depreciated by 5.29 per cent to trade at N1.61, UPDC dropped 5.19 per cent to sell for N1.28, while Chams decreased by 4.76 per cent to 20 kobo.
At the other end, Oando maintained its recent upward trajectory with a price appreciation of 9.86 per cent to close at N4.79 and was trailed by Champion Breweries, which gained 9.00 per cent to sell at N2.30.
FTN Cocoa grew by 8.89 per cent to settle at 49 kobo, Fidson appreciated by 6.73 per cent to close at N6.50, while Livestock Feeds improved by 6.02 per cent to N2.29.
