Market turns south on concerns around inconsistency of MPC meeting

Nigeria’s equities market failed to stay on the positive path on Wednesday as investors routed to take profit across tickers that have risen significantly this year.

This negative was further fuelled by investors’ concerns around irregularities of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings as the one earlier scheduled this week was further postponed.

In the absence of major advancers on Wednesday by mid-to-large cap stocks, the market decreased by 0.09 percent or N35billion, thereby confirming most analysts earlier expectation that the market will this week trade on a mixed note with a prevailing bearish sentiment.

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This week, the market has recorded two days of negative closes as against a day of positive close.

“We expect a couple of factors to impact investors’ sentiment. Specifically, we anticipate a downturn in market momentum, driven by concerns around the inconsistency of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC),” Meristem research analysts said on November 20.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and its market capitalisation decreased from preceding day’s highs of 71,066.64 points and N39.082trillion respectively to 71,003.98 points and N39.047trillion. This year’s return decreased to 38.54 percent. In 6,677 deals, investors exchanged 428,443,260 shares valued at N7.373billion.