Gain in Airtel Africa, Others Lift Stock Market by N355bn

Kayode Tokede

Despite the shortened trading week due to two-day public holidays, the stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) halted its profit-taking streak by investors as Airtel Africa Plc added 10 per cent or N173.20 to close at N1905.40 per share.

With about N650.9billion gain in Airtel Africa market capitalisation, the overall market capitalisation added N355billion to close at N28.185trillion the market opened for trading on Wednesday from N27.803trillion it closed for trading on Friday.

The decline in Dangote Cement Plc, Access Holdings, United Bank for Africa Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc slowdown the stock market performance last week.

Pertinently, the NGX All-Share Index rose by 1.3per cent or 657.71 basis points week-on-week (WoW) to close at 52,215.12 basis points from 51,557.41 5basis points it opened for trading .1.28

Consequently, the stock market in its Month-till-Date (MtD) and Year-till-Date (YtD) returns closed at 0.8per cent and 22.2per cent, respectively.

However, activity levels were weaker than the prior week, as trading volume and value declined by 38.7per cent WoW and 27.5per cent WoW, respectively.

The weekly report by NGX disclosed that a total turnover of 504.322 million shares worth N7.517 billion in 12,393 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 822.404 million shares valued at N10.366 billion that exchanged hands in 20,643 prior deals.

According to the report, the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 270.549 million shares valued at N 2.940 billion traded in 5,730 deals; thus contributing 53.65per cent and 39.11per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Sectoral performance on the NGX revealed that, the Industrial Goods index dropped by 3.4per cent, Insurance index was down by 1.9per cent, Banking Index depreciated by 0.5per cent, and Consumer Goods index dipped by 0.3per cent while the Oil and Gas index closed flat.

The report stated that a total of 2,414 units valued at N962,254 were traded last week in 10 deals compared with a total of 5,099 units valued at N267,772.87 transacted in prior week’s 17 deals.

Analysts at Cordros securities stated that, “We expect investors to trade cautiously in the week ahead as they anticipate the H1-22 earnings season.

“Notwithstanding, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”