MPC: NSE drops N51bn on fear of rate adjustment

The Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation on Friday dropped further by N51 billion on sustained profit taking due to fear of rate adjustment by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The MPC of the Central Bank of Nigeria first meeting of year has been slated for Jan. 25 and Jan. 26.

Specifically, the market capitalisation lost N51 billion or 0.24 per cent to close at N21.448 trillion compared with N21.499 trillion posted on Thursday.

Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 41,099.15 shed 97.16 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 41,001.99.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the persistent bearish trend to fear of likely rate cut by MPC.

“Historically, February is a dicey month for the stock market, despite being the period for early filers of full year earnings reports.

“The recent slow or profit booking is as a result of positive close of 2020 and fear of rate adjustment at the forthcoming MPC meeting, ahead of earnings reporting season,” Omordion said.

He said that the fear was heightened by the latest FGN Bonds which reopened on adjusted and juicier rates for long tenored bonds.

Omordion noted that the relative stability in the market was due to dominance of domestic institutional investors.

An analysis of the price movement chart indicates that 32 stocks recorded price depreciation, relative to 21 gainers.

Lafarge Africa topped the laggards’ table, dropping N1.95 kobo to close at N26 per share.

MRS trailed with N1.20 kobo to close at N11.20 kobo, while Livestock Feeds dipped 28k to close at N2.52 per share.

NEM Insurance lost 26k to close at N2.43, while United Bank for Africa dipped 25k to close at N8.70 per share.

On the other hand, Flour Mills led the gainers’ table, increasing by 40k to close at N32 per share.

NCR followed with 28k to close at N3.12, while Cutix added 20k to close at N2.26 per share.

Champion Breweries garnered 17k to close at N1.95, while United Bank for Africa improved by 10k to close at N5.55 per share.

Also, the volume of shares traded closed lower as investors bought and sold 591.46 million shares valued at N5.07 billion in 5,787 deals.

This was against 1.12 billion shares valued at N6.39 billion exchanged in 7,404 deals on Thursday.

Transcorp was the most active stock, exchanging 169.28 million shares worth N195.89 million.

Japaul Gold followed with an account of 47.28 million shares valued at N44.95 million, while UBA traded 36.64 million shares worth N321.81 million.

FBN Holdings exchanged 34.31 million shares valued at N250.82 million, while Zenith Bank sold 25.71 million shares worth N680.79 million.