The market cap dropped by 1.04 in percentage terms, the same
percentage as the All Share Index, which dropped 574.59 basis points to settle
at 54. 915.61.
In terms of exchanges, a total of 137,286,570 volume of
shares worth N1.509bn were traded in 3,489 deals on the exchange.
The bearish trend has persisted in the equities market since
Monday as investors continue to suffer losses. However, the recorded loss of
N313 bn has been the biggest for the week.
Reacting to the market trend, the Chief Executive Officer of
Arthur Stevens Assets Management, Tunde Amolegbe, mentioned a few reasons,
including jitters about the election season as well as the newly-released
inflation rate of 21.91 per cent for February 2023.
He said, “Profit-taking continues on the back of the strong
gains we’ve seen since the beginning of the year. Investors seem to be
reassessing their positions on the back of recently released inflation data.”
The expectation is that this could lead to further
tightening of monetary policy by the MPC at its next meeting.
“Typical anxiety that typically surrounds election periods
in Nigeria could also be a factor. We cannot rule out the anticipated impact of
the poor roll-out of the demonetisation policy of the Central Bank Of Nigeria
on corporate earnings in the first quarter of the year. Those results will
start coming to the market next month.
“Though the participation of FPIs (Foreign Portfolio
Investment) in our market has been muted of late, we cannot rule out the
chilling impact that recent happenings in the International banking sector
could have on the ones that are still here; I am talking of the collapse of
Silicon Valley Bank and the likes.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment