Starting up the new week, equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended in the negative territory, as the lead performance pointer- NSEASI gave up 10Bpts of its trading points, and closed at 38,906.42 from 38,943.87. It was a mixed performance amongst the observed market indices as shown in the index movement table. Thus, Week to Date, the lead index is 10Bpts below opening, while the total lost points in the month September is now 80Bpts. See the index movement table for details.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the Headline Inflation dropped for the fifth consecutive time in August, 2021. Also, the Central Bank of Nigeria, through its Monetary Policy Committee, voted to keep all rates unchanged in its September meeting. This was a move taken by the group to ensure relatively low cost of funds, needed to support the economy. But despite these positive moves, trading activities on the floor of the exchange had maintained a side-way trend. Although good numbers of expected earnings had been received till date, we are of the opinion that positions for third quarter earnings should commence any moment from now. Please understand that both Stanbic-IBTC and UBA will be adjusted for N1.00 and 20k interim dividend recently announced within the week (21st and 24th September respectively).

The total value loss by the Market Capitalization of the listed equities during today’s trading activities was N19.510 billion, same as 10Bpts below the opening value. Meanwhile, trading activities for the day produced 19 ADVANCERS and 19 LAGERS. NGXASI Year to Date loss is now 339Bpts while the Market Capitalization Year to Date loss stood at N786.245 billion same as 373Bpts below the year’s opening value.