Nigerian equity market extends downtrend despite interest rate cut

L – R shows (B) Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, Chairman, First Bank; Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, OON, Chief Executive Officer, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Dr. Oba Otudeko, CFR , Group Chairman, First Bank Holdings Plc; Mr. UK. Eke, MFR, Group Managing Director, First Bank Holdings Plc and Mrs. Kehinde Adenrele, Chairman, First Bank Nigeria Insurance during a Closing Gong Ceremony in commemoration of 125 years anniversary of First Bank at the Exchange today in Lagos.

The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) continued its downtrend on Tuesday, despite the reduction of benchmark interest rate to 13.5 per cent from 14 per cent by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank.

The All Share Index (ASI) dropped marginally by 0.01 per cent due to selloff in Banking and Consumer goods sectors.

The All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 3.46 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.01per cent, to close at 31,042.32 points.

The downtrend was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalized stocks, amongst which are; WEMABANK (-6.25per cent), PRESCO (-5.15per cent), TRANSCORP (-3.97per cent), NB (-3.60per cent), PZ (-2.86per cent), HONYFLOUR (-0.83 per cent), UBA (-0.64 per cent), FCMB (-0.51 per cent), GUARANTY (-0.27per cent), and NESTLE (-0.01 per cent).

Conversely, Market Capitalization gained N94.97 billion representing an increase of 0.82per cent, to close at N11.67trillion as result of the additional listing of 7,434,367,256 ordinary shares of Lafarge Africa Plc (Lafarge).

Market capitalization climbed from yesterday’s position following the listing of additional right issue by Lafarge.

Hence, the total issued and fully paid up shares of Lafarge plc increased from 8,673,428,240 to 16,107,795,496 ordinary shares.

CADBURY increased 9.6 per cent to top the top gainer list, while WEMABANK shed 6.25 per cent emerged as the top loser.