BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The domestic stock market index closed at 49,544.73 points, down 0.09 percent, as bears maintained their grip on the local exchange in response to the bearish market sentiment.
The year-to-date gain of the NGX ASI dipped to 16.11 percent despite the market breadth closing flat with 16 losers and 16 gainers apiece.
Specifically, share prices of counters such as FCMB, STERLING BANK, GLAXOSMITH, and NB advanced by 8.02 percent, 3.90 percent, 1.67 percent, and 0.10 percent, respectively.
Performance across sub-sector gauges tracked was bearish, with three of the five indices tracked closing in the red zone; the NGX Banking index, NGX Insurance index, and NGX Oil & Gas index fell by 0.30 percent, 0.03 percent, and 0.32 percent, respectively.
On the positive side, the NGX Consumer Goods index increased by 0.10 percent, while the NGX Industrial index stayed constant. Market activity was weak as the total value of stocks traded declined 38.79 percent to N1.67 billion, with the volume of stocks exchanged decreasing 7.23 percent to 128.94 million units.
Meanwhile, NIBOR rose for most tenor buckets amid financial system liquidity strain, as the open buyback rate and the overnight lending rate both increased by 5 bps to 13.00 percent and 13.50 percent, respectively; Also, NITTY rose for all maturities tracked amid sell pressure. In the OTC bond market, the values of FGN bonds traded were flattish for all maturities tracked. However, the value of FGN Eurobonds declined for most maturities tracked amid bearish sentiment.
