Equity market investors lost about N481 billion at the end of trading on Thursday due to sell-offs and declining interest. The PUNCH reported that the yield on the one-year Nigerian Treasury Bill increased to 19% on Wednesday as a result of investors in Nigeria shifting their focus to Treasury Bills during the country’s main market auction.
The one-year T-bill was the most popular investment among investors, who bid N1.87 trillion for the N600 billion up for grabs, of which N908.75 billion was allotted with 19% stop rates, according to auction results.
Investors offered interest rates ranging from 13% to 29% and at the auction, Nigeria sold a record N1.8tn worth of treasury bills, nearly twice the N1tn that was up for bid.
According to the Managing Director of Arthur Steven Asset Management, Tunde Amolegbe, “Investors are looking for higher funding rates as a result of the CBN signalling additional tightening due to accelerating inflation and other factors,” he stated.
“Secondly, there appears to be a lean towards the extended portion of the curve, indicating a level of trust in the government and its implemented changes.”
The market capitalization and All-Share Index in the equities market closed at N55.39 trillion and 101,227.66 points, respectively, down 0.86 per cent.
In the meantime, the value of traded units increased by 11.97% to 478.38 million, valued at N7.17 billion, a 39.91 per cent increase over Wednesday’s value of trade. The number of deals increased to 10.957 from 9,665.
According to the Managing Director of Arthur Steven Asset Management, Tunde Amolegbe, “Investors are looking for higher funding rates as a result of the CBN signalling additional tightening due to accelerating inflation and other factors,” he stated.
Due to the unfavourable opinion of investors, there were only seven winners and 54 losers.
Among the gainers were the equities of Tantalizer, which increased 4.76 per cent to N0.44, Juli Plc, which jumped by 9.52 per cent to N0.92, and Meyer Plc, which added 9.97 per cent to N6.29.
On the losers’ chart, Nascon Allied Industries, Unity Bank, and Consolidated Hallmark Plc were in the lead.
Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Transcorp Plc were the top three stocks driving the day’s market trend in terms of volume and value.
