LAGOS (Sundiata Post) – The Nigerian equities market returned to positive position with a gain of 1.33 per cent, on Tuesday as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) retains all its monetary policy indicators.
At the end of its meeting , the Central Bank of Nigeria’s MPC, still faced with the challenges of a severely weakened macroeconomic landscape, accentuated by stagflation dilemma, declining economic and business activities, and overall recessionary trend voted to maintain status quo by retaining the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 14 per cent, asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +200/-500bps, Cash Reserves Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 per cent and Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30 per cent.
In summary, lead indicator, NSE-ASI gained 370 absolute points or 1.33 per cent to close at 28,209.93 points. Similarly, the market capitalization appreciated by N127 billion to close at N9.690 trillion.
The upturn was strongly impacted by price apreciation recorded in a handful of large capitalized stocks,among which are Dangote Cement, Total, Conoil, Stanbic IBTC and Oando.
Market breadth closed positive with 15 gainers and 14 losers. Conoil led the gainers table by 10.23 per cent to close at N38.69 per share. Oando followed with a gain of 4.91 per cent each to close at N5.34, while NEM Insurance rose by 4.88 per cent to close at 86 kobo per share.
Nahco went up by 4.50 per cent to close at N3.48 and Unity Bank rose by 4.11 per cent to close at 76 kobo per share.
On the other hand, Aiico Insurance led the laggards’ table by 4.84 per cent to close at 59 kobo per share. UACN trailed with a loss of 4.3.58 per cent to close at N21, while Wema Bank declined by 3.31 per cent to close at 62 kobo per share.
Also, Skye Bank declined by 1.52 per cent to close at 65 kobo, while Unilever shed by 1.11 per cent to close at N45.50 per share.
Meanwhile, the total volume traded declined by 29.48 per cent to 231.46 million shares, valued at N2.49 billion, and traded in 3,452 deals. Transactions in the shares of FCMB topped the activity chart with 51.59 million shares valued at N51.64 million. Wapic Insurance followed with 23.97 million shares worth N11.99 million, while Access Bank traded 21.34 million shares valued at N118.97 million.
Unilever traded 16.02 million shares worth N729.8 and Guaranty Trust Bank transacted 13.3 million shares valued at N359.11 million.