Sentiments on the domestic bourse turned negative on Tuesday to halt the five consecutive days of gains, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held all policy parameters unchanged.

Specifically, the All-Share Index lost 46.93 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 38,802.15 from the 38,849.08 recorded on Monday.

Consequently, the month-to-date gain moderated to 2.4 per cent, while the year-to-date loss increased to 3.7 per cent.

Also, market capitalisation which opened at N20.240 trillion shed N24 billion or 0.12 per cent to close at N20.216 trillion.

The downturn was due to investors’ selloff sentiment in some bellwether stocks, as the market awaited the release of more half year results of listed companies.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) concluded its two-day policy meeting and voted to leave all policy parameters unchanged.

Accordingly, the benchmark interest rate (MPR) was maintained at 11.50 per cent; asymmetric corridor remained at +100/-700 bps around the MPR; the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) was held at 27.50 per cent; and the Liquidity Ratio was retained at 30.00 per cent.

The market loss was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; MTN Nigeria Communications, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust, Africa Prudential, Unilever Nigeria and International Breweries.

The market closed at par with 20 gainers as against 20 losers.

Oando recorded the highest price gain of 9.86 per cent to close at N4.79 per share.

Champion Breweries followed with a gain of nine per cent to close at N2.30, while FTN Cocoa Processors went up by 8.89 per cent to close at 49k per share.

Fidson Healthcare rose by 6.73 per cent to close at N6.50, while Livestock Feeds gained 6.73 per cent to close at N2.29, per share.

On the other hand, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust led the losers’ chart by 6.67 per cent to close at N5.60 per share.

Unity Bank followed with a decline of 6.45 per cent to close at 58k, while NPF Microfinance Bank lost 5.29 per cent to close at N1.61 per share.

UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) lost 5.19 per cent to close at N1.28, while Chams shed 4.76 per cent to close at 20k per share.

The total volume of trades decreased by 1.41 per cent to 243.08 million units valued  N1.89 billion exchanged in 4,326 deals.

This was in contrast with 246.56 million shares worth N2.24 billion traded in 4,676 deals on Monday.

Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 21.77 million shares valued  N204.44 million.

Wema Bank followed with 21.29 million shares worth N17.86 million, while UPDC traded 14.55 million shares valued  N18.27 million.

UACN traded 14.42 million shares worth N162.19 million, while United Bank for Africa transacted 12.61 million shares worth N99.08 million. 

(NAN)