N481bn investors fund lost as equity market extends bearish trend

Equity market investors lost about N481bn at the close of trading on Thursday due to sell-offs and waning interests.

During Wednesday’s primary market auction, investors in Nigeria shifted their focus to Treasury Bills, causing the yield on the one-year Nigerian Treasury Bill to rise to 19 per cent.

Results from the auction showed that the one-year T-bill was the toast of investors who offered N1.87tn for the N600bn on offer, out of which N908.75bn was allotted with stop rates of 19 per cent.

Nigeria sold a record N1.8tn worth of treasury bills at the auction, almost double the N1tn on offer.

This, according to the Managing Director of Arthur Steven Asset Management, Tunde Amolegbe, showed that investors had confidence in the current government and the reforms it had embarked on.

He said, “Firstly, the investors are seeking higher rates for funding due to CBN signalling further tightening due to accelerating inflation and other factors.

“Secondly, interest seems skewed towards the longer end of the curve, which is an indication of confidence in the government and its reforms.”

In the equity market, the All-Share Index and market capitalisation dipped 0.86 per cent to close at 101,227.66 points and N55.39tn, respectively.

Meanwhile, the volume of traded units rose by 39.91 per cent to 478.38 million valued at N7.17bn, which was 11.97 per cent higher than Wednesday’s value of trade. The number of deals increased to 10.957 from 9,665.

Investors’ sentiment was negative resulting in a mere seven gainers compared to 54 losers.

Some of the gainers included the stocks of Meyer Plc which added 9.97 per cent to N6.29; Juli Plc rose by 9.52 per cent to N0.92 and Tantalizer was up 4.76 per cent to N0.44.

Nascon Allied Industries, Unity Bank and Consolidated Hallmark Plc led the losers’ chart.

The volume and value drivers of the day’s market trend were led by stocks of Transcorp Plc, Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa.