The stock market retreated on Thursday as investors responded to a 50 basis point hike in the benchmark interest rate due to concerns about an economic slowdown – both inflation and interest rate increases might trim economic performance and hold growth in check.
Nigeria’s benchmark interest rate rises to 18.5% as the country’s central bank fights inflation, although unsuccessfully. Market experts anticipate that capital would move into fixed income instruments in anticipation of a yield repricing on naira assets.
After four days of gains, equities investors reported enormous losses of nearly N58 billion as they rebalanced their books for optimal returns, owing to big selloffs in Geregu Power Plc and GTCO shares.
As a result of the selloffs, key performance indicators fell by 0.20%, leading the year-to-date return to decelerate to +3.06%. According to market statistics, the market index or All-Share Index fell by 105.96 basis points today, closing at 52,821.64 points.
The market saw stocks rise, yet the strength of the gainers was insufficient to lift the equities market fortunes – major indexes fell due to selloffs in mid-cap companies.
Stockbrokers reported mixed trading actions in their respective market briefings, with the overall volume traded for the day down by -17.14%. Meanwhile, the overall value grew by +17.16%. Atlass Portfolios Ltd said that in 5,879 transactions, about 377.14 million units valued at $9,178.32 million were transferred.
UBA was the most traded stock in terms of volume, accounting for 23.06% of the total volume of trades, followed by ACCESSCORP (18.03%), ZENITH BANK (10.54%), GTCO (8.29%), and GEREGU (3.51%) to complete the top 5 on the volume chart.
GEREGU was also the most traded stock in value terms, with 42.72% of the total value of trades on the exchange. FTNCOCOA topped the advancers’ chart with a price appreciation of 8.77 percent.
The company was trailed by TANTALIZER (8.33%), WAPIC (7.14%), TOTAL (+6.87%), RTBRISCOE (+5.88%), and seventeen others, stockbrokers’ records showed.
Twenty-two stocks depreciated, where CONOIL was the top loser, with a price depreciation of -9.92% to close at ₦43.60. UNILEVER declined by 8.28%, ETERNA pullback by 6.21% and PZ lost 6.11% of its market valuation and JAPAULGOLD slipped by 5.71%
Following a bearish outing, the market breadth closed par, recording 22 gainers and losers, while the sector performance closed negative, data from the Nigerian Exchange showed.
Today, four out of the five major market sectors were down, led by the Consumer goods sector (-0.14%), followed by the Banking sector (-0.11%), the Insurance sector (-0.08%), and the Industrial sector (-0.07%), while the Oil & Gas sector grew by +0.23%.
Overall, equities market capitalisation decreased by ₦57.70 billion, representing a drop of -0.20% to close at ₦28,761.70 trillion from ₦28,819.40 trillion the previous day.
