Nigeria’s equities market on Wednesday recorded its first decline this week, erasing previous days’ gains as investors priced in Tuesday’s decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
The MPC of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) further ramped up tightening measures to check inflation as it hiked policy rate by 150 basis points (bps) to 26.25 percent.
MPC also retained cash reserve ratio (CRR) for deposit money bank at 45percent; retained asymmetric corridor at +100bps/-300bps; and retained liquidity ratio constant at 30percent.
Read also: IMF advises CBN to further raise monetary policy rate
At the Lagos Bourse, the market traded south by -0.16 percent as more investor took sell positions in some stocks in anticipation of price decline after the MPC decisions. Stock investors lost about N89billion at the close of trading session on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
Multiverse Mining and Exploration Plc led the league of decliners after its share price decreased from N13.75 to N12.40, losing N1.35 or 9.82 percent.
It was followed by The Initiates Plc which decreased from N2 to N1.80, losing 20kobo or 10percent; while Cornerstone Insurance decreased from N2.10 to N1.90, shedding 20kobo or 9.52percent.
Access Holdings, Zenith Bank, GTCO, UBA, and Transcorp were actively traded stocks on the Bourse. In 7,383 deals, investors exchanged 271,708,015 shares worth N5.434billion.
The market’s negative close on Wednesday pushed lower the return year-to-date (YtD) to 31.23percent. The stock market’s benchmark performance indicators – the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation decreased from preceding trading day’s highs of 98,285.33 points and N55.597trillion respectively to 98,128 points and N55.508trillion.
