Airtel Africa, Others Plummet Stock Market by 1.96%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited remained in the negative territory on Tuesday after it closed lower by 1.96 per cent when trading activities were wrapped up on the first trading session of the week.

The decline was chiefly triggered by sell-offs in Airtel Africa and other stocks like GTCO, Access Holdings and others.

Data obtained from the stock market showed that Airtel Africa shed 10.00 per cent to settle at N1,198.00, Royal Exchange declined by 9.09 per cent to 60 Kobo, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance also depreciated by 9.09 per cent to trade at 60 Kobo, Multiverse slumped by 8.75 per cent to N2.40, and Neimeth shrank by 8.28 per cent to N1.33.

On the flip side, Caverton gained 8.25 per cent to quote at N1.05, NAHCO rose by 3.06 per cent to N10.10, Transcorp went up by 2.19 per cent to N1.40, and Sterling Holdings appreciated by 1.35 per cent to N1.50.

Business Post reports that the market breadth was negative yesterday as a result of heavy profit-taking, resulting in the bourse closing with 28 price losers and four price gainers, indicating a weak investor sentiment.

Apart from the energy sector, which closed flat, every other major sector closed bearish, with the insurance space losing 1.83 per cent. The industrial goods counter shed 0.57 per cent, the banking counter depreciated by 0.34 per cent, and the consumer goods index declined by 0.16 per cent.

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 1,041.14 points to 51,952.99 points from 52,994.13 points, and the market capitalisation slumped by N569 billion to N28.300 trillion from N28.869 trillion.

When the stock exchange closed for the day, a total of 1.7 billion stocks worth N4.8 billion exchanged hands in 4,286 deals compared with the 267.0 million stocks worth N1.9 billion traded in 3,651 deals in the preceding session, representing an increase in the trading volume, value, and the number of deals by 545.60 per cent, 152.63 per cent and 17.39 per cent apiece.

Transcorp finished the trading day as the busiest stock after it transacted 1.6 billion units, Zenith Bank traded 44.5 million units, UBA sold 21.0 million units, Fidelity Bank exchanged 8.4 million units, and Royal Exchange traded 6.4 million units.