Nigerian Exchange Bleeds as Airtel Africa Falls by 10%
The equities segment of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) closed negative due to selloffs in Airtel Africa, a telecom company share that worth about N6 trillion in the local bourse.
Consequently, the size of the stock market dip by about N580 billion as the total volume and total value traded for the day dropped by -32.39% and -9.35% respectively.
Stockbrokers at Atlass Portfolios Limited said approximately 197.33 million units valued at ₦2,674.52 million were transacted in 3,506 deals. Specifically, equities market capitalisation declined by ₦579.62 billion, representing a decrease of -1.97% to close at ₦28,882.69 trillion from ₦29,462.31 trillion the previous day.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Airtel Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria, Multiverse Mining and Exploration and Champion Breweries.
Also, market breadth closed negative, with 11 gainers compared to 14 losers. Wapic Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 7.50 per cent to close at 43k, per share.
Mutual Benefits Assurance followed with a gain 6.25 per cent to close at 34k, while CWG rose 5.26 per cent to close at N1, per share.
Eterna went up by 4.46 per cent to close at N5.85, while Cutix appreciated by 3.6 per cent to close at N2.30, per share. On the other hand, Airtel Africa led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N1,331.10, per share, per share.
Ikeja Hotel followed with a decline of 9.85 per cent each to close at N1.19, while Multiverse Mining & Exploration lost 9.59 per cent to close at N2.64, per share.
Royal Exchange lost 9.33 per cent to close at 68k, while Flour Mills of Nigeria shed 4.84 per cent to close at N29.50, per share. The total volume traded declined by 33.50 per cent to 197.331 million units, valued at N2.675 billion, and exchanged in 3,506 deals.
Transactions in the shares of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) topped the activity chart with 61.129 million shares valued at N510.926 million. Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) followed with 23.631 million shares worth N32.671 million, while Zenith Bank traded 12.369 million shares valued at N314.254 million.
Oando traded 9.452 million shares valued at N53.087 million, while Mutual Benefits Assurance transacted 4.215 million shares worth N1.391 million.
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 indices gained, 2 lost while the Industrial Goods index closed flat, according to data from the Nigerian Exchange.
On the positive side, the Insurance and Banking indices rose 0.9% and 0.5% respectively due to price appreciation in WAPIC (+7.5%), MBENEFIT (+6.3%), and ZENITH (+1.4%). Also, buying interest in OANDO (+0.9%) and ETERNA (+4.5%) pushed the Oil & Gas index higher by 0.1%.
Conversely, the AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indices dipped 5.3% and 0.3% respectively due to selling pressure on AIRTELAF (-10.0%), FLOURMILL (-4.8%), and UNILEVER (-3.3%). # Nigerian Exchange Bleeds as Airtel Africa Falls by 10%
