Stock Market Down N248bn WoW on Uncertainty Over MPC Outcome

The stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) dropped by N2488 billion in its Week-on-Week (WoW) performance as investors uncertainty loom over the outcome of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this week’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

The CBN’s MPC meeting is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday this week and the members in first meeting in 2024 voted to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 400 basis points to 22.75 from 18.75 per cent, raise the Cash Reserve Ratio from 32.5 per cent to 45.0 per cent and retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent.

Capital market analysts stated that trading activities on the Nigerian stock market will be driven by the outcome of MPC meeting of this week, stressing that investors, most especially foreign investors may divest in money market instruments if the members voted to hike MPR.

The domestic stock market however, closed last week on a bearish note as the market capitalisation declined by N248 billion WoW to close at N59.169 trillion, while the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) shed 0.42 per cent WoW to close at 104,647.37 basis points.

Sectoral performance for the week was mostly positive, except for the NGX Consumer Goods index, which recorded a loss of 0.37 per cent weekon-week. Conversely, the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Industrial, and NX Oil & Gas sectors experienced gains, driven by upward movements in the prices of key stocks.

However, the market breadth for the week was positive as 50 equities appreciated in price, 32 equities depreciated in price, while 72 equities remained unchanged. Juli led the gainers table by 46.10 per cent to close at N7.86, per share. NEM Insurance followed with a gain of 45.11 per cent to close at N9.65, while International

Energy Insurance went up by 22.95 per cent to close to N1.50 per share.

On the other side, Julius Berger Nigeria led the decliners table by 17.15 per cent to close at N60.15, per share. DAAR Communications followed with a loss of 14.10 per cent to close at 67 kobo, while UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust declined by 12.73 per cent to close at N4.80, per share.