Following the extension of the curfew declared by the Lagos state Government, our reporter observed that banks and major business premises remained shut while security personnel labour to restore law and order.
On Wednesday Access Bank announced its closure. “Following the 24 hour curfew imposed by the Government, our branches in the affected locations have been temporarily shut down. Our digital banking channels are open for you.”
DStv and Gotv, brands of MultiChoice on Tuesday also said their head office was shut down due to the unrest and curfew but that their online contact centres were available.
Fidelity had on Tuesday issued an early closure notice to customers saying: “Please be informed that all our branches in Lagos will close by 2pm today. Further updates on the reopening of our Lagos State branches will be communicated in due course.” It however advised customers to resort to the digital channels.
Keystone Bank also made the announcement on Thursday morning. “Please be informed that due to the curfew imposed by the government in certain states, all our branches in these locations will be closed to comply with government directives.” It directed customers to its electronic channels.
However in the stock market, price appreciation in MTNN (+1.5 per cent), Stanbic (+2.3%) and UBA (+3.0%) buoyed positive performance in the local bourse as the benchmark index increased 40bps to 28,563.87 points.
As a result, market capitalisation increased ₦59.8 billion (about N60bn) to ₦15.0 trillion and year to date return stood at 6.4%.
Activity level varied as volume traded declined 4.7% to 311.3 million units while value traded rose 11.0% to ₦4.7bn.
The most traded stocks by volume were UBA (72.4m units), Zenith (27.2m units) and UACN (22.2m units) while Zenith (₦568.2m), UBA (₦506.8m) and Guaranty Trust Bank (₦472.6m) led by value.
Performance across sectors was bearish as 4 of 6 indices review closed in the red.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth rose to 1.8x from the 0.1x recorded previously as 21 stocks gained against the 12 that declined.
