MPC’s rates retention fails to inspire NGX investors

The decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to leave the benchmark rates unchanged on Tuesday did not sway investors at the Nigerian Exchange as the trading losses extended to seven consecutive sessions.

At the end of its two-day meeting in Abuja, the MPC retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPC) at 11.50%; an asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR; the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) was retained at 27.5%, while Liquidity Ratio was also kept at 30%.

The All-Share Index decreased by 0.08% to settle at 3 8,256.7 6 points, dragged down by blue-chip stocks such as FBNH, GTBank, GUINNESS and eight others and market capitalization lost N1 6.0 6million to N19.9 4trillion, the year-to-date loss worsened to -5.00%.

The total volume and value of equities traded rose by 77.27% and 41.75% respectively, to 250.2million units and N1.6billion.

COURTVILLE (36.85million units), ZENITHBANK (28.19million units) and JAIZBANK (25.85million units) were the most active stocks in terms of volume, while ZENITHBANK (₦649.41million), GUARANTY (₦206.01million) and UACN (₦80.95million) led by value.

Healthcare index led the gainers, up by 0.95% due to buy interest in NEIMETH (+7.02%), while the Services and Consumer Goods indices followed suit, gaining 0.38% and 0.06% respectively, due to buy interests in CILEASING (+9.8 5%) and VITAFOAM (+2.7 8%).

On the flip side, Banking and Agriculture indices declined by -0.4 6% and -0.0 5% respectively, due to back losses in JAIZBANK (-1.7 2%) and FTNCOCOA (-2.3 8%).

The ICT, Industrial Goods and Oil and Gas indices closed flat.

The top gainers were CILEASING (+9.8 5%), ROYALEX (+8.8 2%), CHIPLC (+7.2 7%), NEIMETH (+7.0 2%) and REGALINS (+5.4 1%) of the 11 advancers, while LASACO (-7.1 4%), CHAMPION (-5.6 6%), AIICO (-4.9 6%), CHAMS (-4.7 6%) and MANSARD (-4.4 4%) lost the most of the 17 laggards.