BY FESTUS OKOROMADU, ABUJA
The Nigerian Exchange closed in negative territory at the end of Thursday’s trading session as equities declined further amid high trading volume.
The local bourse extended losses from the previous session, pulling the All-Share Index by 0.09 percent lower to close at 68,271.14 points as against 68,335.72 index points recorded in the previous day’s trading session.
Likewise, the market capitalization of equities witnessed a loss of N35.34 billion to close at N37.37 trillion, 0.09 percent lower than the N37.400 trillion recorded in the previous trading session. Hence, the NGX ASI’s year-to-date return fell to 33.21 percent.
Investors bearish sentiment towards the shares of MTNN, ACCESSCORP, and FBNH which lost 0.41, 1.74, and 0.88 percent share price respectively overturned the gains post by GTCO, WAPCO, and DANGSUGAR which appreciated by 1.12, 0.17 and 3.61 percent respectively causing the drag in the market.
Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 8.03 percent.
A total of 1.12 billion shares valued at N5.82 billion were exchanged in 7,949 deals. OANDO led the volume and value chart with 100.69 million units traded in deals worth N1.46 billion.
In addition, OANDO also led 24 other stocks to top the losers chart shedding 9.93 percent of its share price while MBENEFIT added 9.30 percent to its share price to top other 20 stocks on the gainers table.
Also, data from the National Pension Commission revealed that assets under management of the regulated pension industry increased to N17.1 trillion by end of July 2023, translating to 18.9 percent growth year-on-year and slightly higher than the 17.5 percent YoY rose recorded the previous month.
On standardized terms, the pension assets represent about 8.6 percent of Nigeria’s 2022 GDP.
However, this figure is well below the 29.4 percent (2020) average for a group of 78 countries based on World Bank data.
Details revealed that a significant portion of Nigeria’s pension investments remains concentrated in government securities.
The FGN securities, which accounted for roughly 65 percent of the PFA’s total assets mix, increased by 22 percent YoY or N2.0 trillion to N11.0 trillion as at end-July 2023.
FGN bonds, which constitute a significant proportion of FGN securities, represent 62% of total AUM. In absolute terms, their value increased by 21% y/y to NGN10.6trn.
Analysts have attributed the higher allocation to fixed-income instruments to the increased supply of FGN paper on the primary market, caused by a substantial rise in domestic borrowing this year relative to 2022.
For context, the Debt Management Office has so far raised N4.3 trillion from its bond auctions this year. This compares with the N2.8 trillion rise for the whole of last year.
Another factor said to have contributed is a more hawkish posture by the monetary policy committee, which has driven a rise in market yields.
The value share of PFA’s investment in domestic equities also increased robustly by 46 percent YoY to N1.3 trillion during the period under review.
