October 27, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s equities and foreign exchange markets declined after the day’s transactions as mixed reactions trailed the Supr
October 27, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s equities and foreign exchange markets declined after the day’s transactions as mixed reactions trailed the Supreme Court’s judgement affirming Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory at the February 25 presidential election polls.
Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld President Bola Tinubu’s election win, bringing to an end a legal challenge brought by his two main rivals, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party respectively.
Investors in the equities market lost N67 billion as the market capitalisation dropped to N36,85 trillion from N36,92 trillion on the previous day.
The year-to-date (YTD) return slipped to 30.89% as the All-Share Index dipped 0.18% to 67,084.95 points from 67,206.25 points achieved on Wednesday.
The bearish trend was triggered majorly by selloffs in MTN Nigeria (-0.40%), Zenith Bank (-0.75%), and GTCO (-1.55%) which pushed the market into the red.
MTN Nigeria lost 1.00 to close at N249 against N250 it opened for the day, while Zenith Bank which opened with N33.35 closed at N33.25, recording a loss of 0.25. GTCO shed 0.55 to close at N30.00 against opening figure of N30.55.
The bears dragged the overall market thereby offsetting gains in major stocks – Nestle Nigeria (+2.94%), UBA (+0.27%), and Access Corporation (+0.59%).
Nestle Nigeria gained 30.00 to close at N1,050 against the opening value of N1,020. UBA gained 0.05 to close at N18.80 against N18.75 opening price. Access Corporation rose from N16.85 to N16.95, a gain of 0.10.
However, analysts at Coronation Research see the market remain on track for a week of gain.
Analysis of Thursday day’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 15.88%. A total of 267.65m shares valued at ₦5.11bn were exchanged in 5,205 deals.
At the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), formerly I&E window, the naira depreciated against the US dollar to settle at N837.49 per dollar against N801.10 per dollar it closed on Wednesday, representing a depreciation of N36.39 or 4.5 percent.
The parallel market closed N1,300 lower than N1,320 it traded on Wednesday, according to Lagos street currency traders who spoke to THEWILL on point of anonymity.
thewillnews.com
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