Stock Market Lost N1.73trn as Investors Dump Airtel Africa
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) market capitalisation was lowered by more than N1.7 trillion in the just concluded week as investors in the local bourse priced down Airtel Africa.
Some analysts said the telecom share was overpriced when it printed on N2000 mark. Airtel Africa still remains a market mover along with other heavyweights in the N4-5 trillion market valuation category on the local bourse.
But Airtel had crossed N7 trillion, despite sharing similar market fundamentals with MTN Nigeria which some market analysts actually believe should command such a juicy share price as Airtel Africa based on their historical performances.
Alone, Airtel Africa lost 27.1% last week – pulling back the equities index and moderated year to date return Consequent to the poor outing seen in the telecom company shares, the Nigerian Exchange All-share index dipped 6.7% to settle at 44,396.73 points – falling below psychological level – the first time since January 2022.
Then, year to date return moderated to 3.9% from 11.36% while market capitalisation decreased by ₦1.7 trillion to ₦24.2 trillion, according to trading data released on the local bourse. READ:NGX Tumbles as Investors Dump MTNN Amid Retail Offer
Following the lackluster performance on the back of waning investors’ sentiments, losses were recorded from the sell-pressure witnessed in tickers such as AIRTELAFRI (-27%), RTBRISCOE (-18%), UACN (-16%), NB (-13%), and NEM (-10%) respectively.
Meanwhile, the sectorial performance closed the week in the mix as the NGX Industrial Goods Index which popped up 3.22% led the gainers’ chart just like the previous week due to price appreciation in BUACEMENT (+19%).
Also, NGX Banking also gained by 1.15% week on week following strong buying interest in FIDELITYBK (+9%), GTCO (+9%), and UNITYBNK (+12%).
On the contrary, the Insurance index declined by 3.72% due to sell-offs seen in NEM (-10%), trailed by NGX Oil/Gas (-1.45%), and the NGX Consumer Goods (-0.88%).
Cowry Asset said the level of trading activities in the week closed strong as the total traded volume advanced 90.73% week on week to 938.02 million units.
Meanwhile, the total weekly traded value also improved by 40.09% week on week to N16.70 billion and then the total deals traded for the week climbed the ladder upwardly from the prior week to 15,700 from 14,350 deals last week.
# Stock Market Lost N1.73trn as Investors Dump Airtel Africa#
