Cash crisis: investors dump banking, insurance stocks amid fears

Banking and insurance stocks have come under intense pressure at the stock market amid concerns that the ongoing cash crisis could negatively impact the performance of the financial services sector.

Benchmark indices at the stock market at the weekend indicated that banking and insurance stocks were the major losers in a resilient market.

The benchmark index for the Nigerian equities market at the weekend showed a modest positive return of 0.21 per cent for the week, but insurance and banking stocks recorded the highest average losses during the week. Consumer goods sector, whose distributive trade business is expected to be impacted negatively by naira notes scarcity, also came under pressure.

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The NGX Insurance Index recorded an average decline of 3.32 per cent, the highest during the week. It was followed by the NGX Banking Index, which dropped by 0.90 per cent.The NGX Consumer Goods Index recorded an average loss of 0.63 per cent. The NGX Pension Index, which tracks stocks specially screened for pension funds’ investments and has substantial exposure to financial stocks, also trended negative with average return of -0.43 per cent.

Compared to the contrarian sectors, other sectors closed on the positive, rallying the market position to average gain of 0.21 per cent. The NGX Industrial Goods Index rose by 0.65 per cent. The NGX Oil and Gas Index appreciated by 0.63 per cent.