Investors lose N313bn as market cap falls

The Nigerian Exchange Limited lost N313 billion, dropping to N29.915 trillion, less than a month after reaching a market value of N30 trillion.

The market cap decreased by 1.04 percent, matching the All Share Index's decline of 574.59 basis points to close at 54.915.61 in percentage terms.

A total of 3,489 transactions totalling 137,286,570 shares worth N1.509 billion were made on the exchange.

Since Monday, the stock market has been in a downward trend as investors have continued to experience losses. The loss of N313 billion, however, was the most for the week.

Tunde Amolegbe, the chief executive officer of Arthur Stevens Assets Management, responded to the market trend by citing a number of causes, including anxiety over the upcoming election period and the recently revealed inflation figure 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.”

It is anticipated that the MPC may further tighten monetary policy as a result of its upcoming 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.”

Source