Equities market up N19.1bn as inflation climbs in March

Onome Amuge

The Nigerian stock market closed Tuesday with marginal gains, as the All-Share Index (ASI) edged up 0.03 per cent to settle at 104,529.62 points amidst the announcement of a hike in the country’s inflation levels for the month of March. The upward movement also boosted market capitalisation by 0.03 per cent to N65.7 trillion, adding N19.1 billion to investors’ wealth.

Meanwhile, sectoral performance presented a mixed picture. This is as the Insurance sector led the gains with a 0.15 per cent rise, followed by Consumer Goods which climbed 0.72 per cent. Conversely, the Banking sector saw a 0.11 per cent decline. On the other hand, the Oil & Gas, Industrial Goods, and Commodities sectors remained largely unchanged at the close of trading.

Market breadth remained positive, with 24 stocks advancing against 19 decliners. Top performers included ABBEYBDS, UNILEVER, LEARNAFRICA, NSLTECH, and CONHALLPLC. On the flipside, ABCTRANS, TIP, CAVERTON, GUINEAINS, and NGXGROUP  recorded the biggest losses.

Despite the positive closing, trading activity was relatively muted. The number of deals executed decreased by 9.29 per cent, and trade volume also saw a decline of 13.87 per cent. However, the total value of trades transacted rose by 3.35 per cent, with investors exchanging 368.77 million shares worth N10.87 billion across 13,228 deals.

Nigeria’s inflation climbs to 24.2% in March

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate climbed to 24.23 per cent in March, up from 23.18 per cent in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Tuesday, underscoring persistent price pressures in Africa’s largest economy.

The statistics office noted that the headline inflation rate for March represented a 1.05 percentage point increase compared with the previous month. On a month-on-month basis, inflation surged to 3.90 per cent in March, a noticeable acceleration from the 2.04 per cent recorded in February. This indicates a marked increase in the average price level compared to the prior month.

Food inflation, a major component of the overall rate, stood at 21.79 per cent year-on-year in March. Month-on-month, food prices rose by 2.18 per cent, a 0.50 percentage point increase from the 1.67 per cent recorded in February.

The NBS attributed the uptick in food inflation to increases in the average prices of several key items, including fresh ginger, yellow garri, ofada broken rice, natural honey, crabs, potatoes, plantain flour, unshelled periwinkle, and fresh pepper.