Equities Market Gains as CBN Holds MPR at 27%

The stock market bounced back by 0.10 per cent on Tuesday, posting a gain of N94 billion for investors. This is after six consecutive bearish sessions.

The uptick was due to renewed investor interest in stocks such as NCR Nigeria, Ikeja Hotel, Prestige Assurance, Eunisell Interlinked, and 19 other advancing stocks.

Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N91.346 trillion, added N94 billion to close at N91.440 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index soared by 0.10 per cent or 148.52 points, settling at 143,763.13 compared with 143,614.61 recorded on Monday.

Also, the market breadth closed positive with 23 gainers against 20 losers.
FG152028S1 led the gainers’ chart, rising 230 per cent to close at N99.

NCR Nigeria trailed by 9.98 per cent, ending the session at N45.20, while Ikeja Hotel gained by 9.86 per cent, finishing at N22.85 per share.

Prestige Assurance soared by 9.56 per cent, settling at N1.49, and Eunisell Interlinked grew by 9.46 per cent, closing at N86.50 per share.

Conversely, Union Dicon Salt and Caverton Offshore Support Group led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each, finishing at N6.30 and N4.95 per share respectively.

Sunu Assurances dropped by 4.78 per cent, settling at N4.38, Lasaco Assurance dipped by 4.58 per cent, ending the session at N2.50, and AXA Mansard fell by 4.23 per cent, closing at N12.45 per share.

An evaluation of market activity revealed an overall decline in market deals, volume, and value, as 556.2 million shares worth N18.7 billion were exchanged across 19,500 transactions.

This is in contrast to 892.5 million shares valued at N23.5 billion that were traded in 20,225 deals earlier on Monday.

Meanwhile, FirstHoldCo recorded the highest volume, with 93.72 million shares traded, while STANBIC recorded the highest value, at N3.21 billion.

This performance followed the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which retained the country’s headline lending rate, the Monetary Policy Rate, at 27 per cent.

The Cash Reserve Ratio was also retained at 45 per cent for commercial banks and 16 per cent for merchant banks.

The MPC also retained the 75 per cent CRR on non-TSA public sector deposits.

Liquidity Ratio was also retained at 30 per cent, while the Standing Facilities Corridor was adjusted to +50/-450 basis points around the MPR.

(NAN)