The stock market investors and operators will from today pay more as transaction cost for shares traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE following the implementation of the new Value Added Tax, VAT of 7.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian equities market suffered its first weekly loss of the year, 2020 as the impact of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s hike in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 500 bases points, bps to 27.5 percent prompted selloffs in banking stocks.
Consequently, the NSE All-Share Index plummeted by 2.7 percent, the largest weekly loss since the week ended April 5, 2019 (-4.6 percent) bringing the Year to Date, YtD return to 7.5 percent.
Analysing by sectors, the Banking index recorded its largest decline of 5.2 percent since the week ended August 9, 2019 when it fell by 6.1 percent, while the Industrial Goods (-2.8 percent), and Oil & Gas (-1.1 percent) indices following suit. Conversely, the Insurance (0.9 percent) and Industrial Goods (0.1 percent) indices were the only indices to post positive performances.