Nigeria’s equities market opened the new week slightly in red as investors focus shifted to the outcome of the ongoing Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
Analysts are leaning toward “hold” as MPC decides on the benchmark interest rate after its 300th meeting holding in Abuja from May 19 to 20.
At the close of trading, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation decreased from preceding trading day’s highs of 109,710.37 points and N68.953 trillion respectively to 109,697.83 points and N68.945 trillion.
Read also: NGX-ASI up 0.46% on renewed bargains
Also, Futureview Research analysts in their expectation for this week said, “We expect a mixed performance in the equities market this week, with slight bearish sentiment driven by anticipated profit-taking”.
“The upcoming NTB auction and the CBN’s MPC rates decision will guide investor positioning, while interest in undervalued stocks may offer support,” they added.
The Initiates led the league of laggards after dropping from N6.80 to N6.12, losing 68kobo or 10 percent, while Beta Glass led the advancers league, rising from N235.05 to N258.50, up by N23.45 or 9.98 percent.
In 24,883 deals, equity traders exchanged 486,087,483 shares valued at N11.381billion. Stocks like Access Holdings, Fidelity Bank, GTCO, Cutix, and UBA were actively traded stocks on Monday.
“Looking forward, the equities market will be relatively dovish this week. On one side, investors expectation of the MPC action on Tuesday will make the equities market quiet at the start of the week. At mid-week, the NT-bills auction slated for Wednesday might switch investors’ attention from the equities market to the money market.
Read also: E-Tranzact, others cause NGX negative start to new week
“Also, barring any tangible inflows, anticipated system deficit might decline buy-interest in the equities market. Nevertheless, there might be some pockets of buying activities arising from filing of impressive Q1-2025 results. Given the above, we advise PMs to adopt opportunistic approach taking advantage of intra-day gains in the equities market,” United Capital research analysts said in their May 19 note.
