Airtel Africa Tops Price Gainers Chart as Index Picks 1.28%

By Dipo Olowookere

The second largest telecommunications company in Nigeria, Airtel Africa Plc, led the price gainers table on Friday after adding N26.50k to its share value to settle at N350 per unit.

The stock was among the 31 counters that appreciated during the trading session as against the eight equities which depreciated.

It was the first price appreciation shares of the telco were recording this week and in a long time since they were admitted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Tuesday, July 9, 2019.

Seplat occupied the second position after going up by N10 to finish at N460 each, Okomu Oil gained N4.25k to settle at N48.40k per share, Forte Oil improved by N1.20k to end at N16.55k per unit, while Cadbury Nigeria increased by 85 kobo to close at N10.75k per share.

At the other side, Stanbic IBTC picked the top spot after shedding 75 kobo to close at N35 per share, while Lafarge Africa followed with a loss of 15 kobo to end at N14.70k per share.

Oando went down by 11 kobo to finish at N3.80k per unit, Champion Breweries declined by 8 kobo to close at N1.30k per share, while Axa Mansard decreased by 4 kobo to finish at N1.71k per unit.

At yesterday’s trading session, the market closed 1.28 percent with the market capitalization increasing by N171.5 billion to close at N13.523 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 352.36 points to settle at 27,779.00 points.

The level of transactions improved at the market with the number of deals, volume of trades and the value of shares exchanged by investors increasing by 16.12 percent, 43.25 percent and 206.82 percent respectively.

Business Post reports that a total of 165.3 million shares worth N2.6 billion were traded in 3,270 deals in contrast to the 115.4 million equities worth N854.3 million transacted in 2,816 deals on Thursday.

GTBank was the most actives stock at the session with a turnover of 42.5 million shares worth N1.2 billion sold, with Zenith Bank trailing with 22.5 million equities worth N427.8 million.

Mutual Benefits Assurance traded 13.4 million stocks valued at N2.8 million, UBA exchanged 12.4 million equities for N77.4 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 8.8 million shares worth N47.8 million.