Investors lose N252bn after cancelled MPC meeting

Investors have lost N252 billion on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the two trading sessions after the monetary policy committee meeting was cancelled.

The meeting was called off due to the inability to form a quorum. The senate has refused to confirm nominees to replace retired members of the committee.

In July 2017, the senate said it would not confirm federal appointees until Ibrahim Magu is removed as acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In all, there are currently only five members available — whereas the quorum is six out of 12 members, as defined by the second schedule of the CBN Act.

The MPC committee is responsible for determining monetary policy rates such as interest rate and liquidity ratio.

At the close of trading on Tuesday, market capitalisation had dropped to N15.902 trillion from N16.089 trillion recorded on Friday.

All Share Index dropped by 702.98 points in the two-day trading to close at 44.389.85 points from 45,092.83 points on Friday.

There were 43 losers as against 14 gainers.

Seplat, Unilever, Nigerian Breweries, Presco Plc and Nestle were the top five gainers on the bourse.

Mobil, Dangote Cement, Julius Berger, GT Bank and Zenith Bank were the top five losers on the bourse.

On activity chart, the three most actively traded stocks were Skye Bank (150.37million), FBNH (104.16million) and Wema Bank (64.08million).