The Nigerian equities market broke off from its 2-day winning streak to close at 98,129.16 points down 16bps. The rate hike to 26.25% by the MPC yesterday, coupled with the NTB auction today lured investors away from risky asset class. Particularly, banking counters succumbed to sell pressure as Zenithbank (-4.62%), GTCO (-3.55%), UBA (-2.16%), Fidelity (-4.49%), FBNH (-0.44%) and FCMB (-2.16%) all dipped on the day. On a brighter note, gains were recorded in Wapco (+4.48%) Jberger (+7.19%) NB (+3.46%), Oando (+3.96%), Access (+0.29%) and Sterling (+1.19%).
Activities in some other index heavyweights like Dangcem, Airtel and Geregu remained muted today while market turnover was moderate at N5.4 billion ($3.6 million) boosted by fragmented trades GTCO, Zenith, UBA and Access. The year-to-date value of the index now stands at +31.23%. We expect the market to trade around the current levels in the next session.