Nigeria Stock Exchange Recovers As Interest Rate Spikes

NGX Records N60bn Trading

The Nigerian Exchange, NGX, equities section recovers little on Tuesday as investors assess the impact of an interest rate rise on the economy and company performance.

The Monetary Policy Committee hiked the benchmark interest rate by 0.5% to 18% at the end of a two-day meeting to combat increasing headline inflation. As a result, the equity market surges higher after beginning the week negatively, in addition to the N479 billion loss incurred last week.

According to data from the local exchange, stock market performance indicators increased by +0.03%, bringing the year-to-date return to +7.13%. The Nigerian Exchange All-Share index rose by 16.20 basis points today, marking a +0.03% gain to close at 54,904.68 points. As a result, equity market capitalization increased by $8.82 billion to end at 29.909.95 trillion, up from 29.901.13 trillion yesterday.

Nonetheless, market activity was down, according to Atlass Portfolios Ltd stockbrokers in an email to investors. According to trading statistics, overall volume and total value traded for the day fell by -89.10% and -44.84%, respectively.

According to stockbrokers, around 127.74 million units worth $1,586.69 million were traded in 2,987 transactions.

UBA was the most traded stock by volume, accounting for 15.35% of total trade volume, followed by TRANSCORP (11.31%), FIDELITYBK (9.97%), ZENITHBANK (9.37%), and GTCO (8.20%) to round out the top five.

ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock in terms of value, accounting for 18.83% of all transactions on the market.

LINKASSURE headed the advancers’ table with a 9.76% price increase, followed by WAPIC (7.89%), CHAMPION (4.26%), STERLNBANK (2.67%), JAIZBANK (2.30%), and seven (07) other companies.

Twelve stocks depreciated, according to trading data. IKEJAHOTEL was the top loser on the chart with a price depreciation of -9.65%, as CADBURY (-5.83%), UPL (- 4.76%), INTBREW (-4.30%), and REGALINS (-3.45%) also record price decline.

The market breadth closed par, recording 12 gainers and 12 losers as the sector performance closed positive.

Three of the five major sectors were up; led by the Insurance sector (+1.30%), followed by the Banking sector (+0.36%), and the Industrial sector (+0.11%), while the Consumer goods sector was down by -0.12%. The Oil & Gas sector closed unchanged.