Stock Market Sustains Downward Trend, Decline by N104bn

The domestic stock market yesterday closed on a negative note as the overall capitalization fell by N104 billion, following investors profit-taking in the stock of MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN) Plc and 23 others.

The drop in the stock market is coming amid Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) further raising the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 200basis points to 24.75 per cent and tweaked the asymmetric corridor around the MPR to +100/-300 from +100/-700.

However, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Liquidity Ratio (LR) for Commercial banks were left unchanged at 45.0 per cent and 30.0 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile the CRR of Merchant bank was raised 400bps to 14.0 per cent.

The NGX All-Share Index dropped by 183.88 per cent or 0.18 per cent, to close at 103,952.47 basis points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value lost N104 billion to close at N58.776 trillion.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; MTNN, United Capital, FBN Holdings (FBNH), PZ Cussons Nigeria and Access Holdings.

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth closed positive as 27 stocks advanced, while 24 declined. Abbey Mortgage Bank recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent to close at N2.42, per share.

Consolidated Hallmark Holdings followed with a gain of 9.92 per cent to close at N1.44, while Juli rose by 9.80 per cent to close at N8.63, per share.

May & Baker Nigeria appreciated by 9.69 per cent to close at N6.00, while International Energy Insurance rose by 9.63 per cent to close at N1.48, per share.

On the other hand, UPDC led the losers’ chart by 9.87 per cent to close at N1.37, per share. United Capital followed with a decline of 8.75 per cent to close at N21.90, while Sovereign Trust Insurance lost 8.33 per cent to close at 44 kobo, per share.

FTN Cocoa Processors lost 8.00 per cent to close at N1.61, while Livestock Feeds depreciated by 7.82 per cent to close at N1.65, per share.