NGX investors loses N569bn, driven by sell-offs in Airtel Africa
By Philemon Adedeji
Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) declared Friday 7th April 2023 and Monday 10th April 2023 as Public Holidays to mark the Easter celebration as the week opened yesterday, the bears continued to dominate the Lagos bourse driven by selloff in index heavyweight, Airtel Africa was the major drag on the overall market’s performance, this loss marked the ASI’s sixth straight session loss.
Absolutely, the NGX All Share Index (ASI) declined by 1,041.14 basis points to represent 1.96 per cent to close at 51,952.99 absolute points from 52,994.13 absolute points it closed for previous trading day.
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return dipped to 1.37 per cent, while the market capitalization shed N569.12 billion to close at N28.300 trillion from N28.869 trillion it closed trade on Thursday.
The loss was impacted by price depreciation in medium and large capitalized stocks which are, Airtel Africa, Royalex Exchange, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance and 26 others.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 148.31 per cent.
At the close of trade yesterday, the trade volume largely increased by 545.6 per cent to close at 1,724,440,493 million units from 266,953,200 million units valued at N4.789 billion were exchanged in 4,286 deals.
The market sentiments as measured by market breadth closed negative as 4 stocks dominated the gainers on the laggards logs versus 29 stocks that dominated the losers on the decliners log.
On the positive side, Caverton Offshore emerged as the highest price gainer which appreciated by 8.25 per cent to close at N1. 05 per share, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company which followed rose by 3.06 per cent to close at N10.10 per share, while Transnational Corporation grew by 2.19 per cent to close at N1.40 per share.
Sterling Bank which recorded as the last fourth gainer went up by 1.35 per cent to close at N1.50 per share, while Transcohot closed flat by 0.00 per cent to close at N6.90 per share.
On the negative side, Airtel Africa came as the most price loser suffered 10.00 loss to close at N1198 per share, Royalex Exchange and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance lost 9.09 per cent each to close at N0.60 each respectively
Multiverse and Mining Evaporation which recorded as the last fourth loser went down by 8.75 per cent to close at N2.40 per share, while Neimeth Pharmaceutical Industry which recorded as the last fifth loser declined by 8.28 per cent to close at N1.33 per share.
Transaction in the shares of Transnational Corporation topped the activities chart with 1.553 billion shares value at N2.101 billion, Zenith Bank which followed traded 44.457 million shares worth N1.133 billion, while United Bank of Africa (UBA) traded 20.984 million shares value at N179.517 million.
Fidelity Bank exchanged 8.394 million shares worth N44.551 million,Royalex Exchange accounted 6.433 million shares worth N3.879 million.
