Due to selloffs in Airtel Africa, a telecom firm whose shares are valued at over N6 trillion on the local stock exchange, the Nigerian Exchange’s (NGX) equity section ended the day in the red. The overall volume and total value traded for the day decreased by -32.39% and -9.35%, respectively, which caused the size of the stock market to decline by around N580 billion.
A total of 3,506 sales included about 197.33 million units valued at $2,674.52 million, according to stockbrokers at Atlass Portfolios Ltd. In particular, the market value of stocks fell by 579.62 billion dollars, or -1.97%, to end at 28.882.69 trillion from 29.462.31 trillion the day before.
Losses in medium- and large-capitalized equities, including Airtel Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria, Multiverse Mining and Exploration, and Champion Breweries, had an influence on the decline.
Moreover, the market breadth ended in the red, with 11 gains and 14 losses. Wapic Insurance saw the greatest price increase, rising 7.50% to close at $43,000 per share. Mutual Benefits Assurance closed the next day up 6.25 percent to 34k, while CWG increased 5.26 percent to N1 per share.
Cutix gained 3.6% to settle at N2.30 per share and Eterna increased by 4.46 percent to close at N5.85. Airtel Africa, on the other hand, topped the losers’ list by 10% 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.
Mutual Benefits Assurance traded 4.215 million shares for N1.391 million, while Oando traded 9.452 million shares worth N53.087 million. According to statistics from the Nigerian Exchange, performance across sectors was uneven, with 3 indices rising and 2 indices falling, while the Industrial Goods index closed unchanged.
On the plus side, price increases in WAPIC (+7.5%), MBENEFIT (+6.3%), and ZENITH (+1.4%) led to the Insurance and Banking indices rising by 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively. Buying activity in OANDO (+0.9%) and ETERNA (+4.5%) also helped to boost the Oil & Gas index by 0.1%.
In contrast, selling pressure on AIRTELAF (-10.0%), FLOURMILL (-4.8%), and UNILEVER (-3.3%) caused the AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indexes to decline by 5.3% and 0.3%, respectively.
