In Three Days, Stock Market Investors Lose N366bn
Equity investors in the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost a total of N366bn in the last three consecutive trading days.
Last week, investors and other stakeholders welcomed the listing of Airtel Africa Plc’s shares on the NSE.
The listing, which took place on Tuesday, added N1.36tn to the total market capitalisation of the Exchange.
Investors had hoped that the listing of Airtel Africa would change the fortunes of the equities market, which had seen about four consecutive weeks of losses.
The market recorded slight gains on the day of the listing but suffered declines in the subsequent trading days.
Airtel Africa, despite gaining 10 per cent on the first day of its listing on the NSE, has lost 18.98 per cent since then as its share price closed at N323.50 on Friday, compared to its listing price of N363.
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc gained 50 basis points, while Dangote Cement Plc and Nestlé Nigeria Plc shed 226bps and 892bps, respectively last week.
Tier-1 banking stocks continued to remain the most actively traded stocks on the Exchange as Guaranty Trust Bank Plc gained 313bps while Zenith Bank Plc shed 181bps last week.
The market continued to trade below its 30,000bps mark, with sentiment remaining bearish as investors continued to await ministerial appointments by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The All Share Index lost 241 basis points last week, with the consumer goods and the oil and gas sectors being the worst-performing sectors.
The banking sector advanced by 79bps last week, making it the best-performing sector.
Volume traded last week fell by 66.36 per cent while value traded fell by 20.23 per cent.
Last week, a total turnover of 988.491 million shares worth N13.839bn in 16,414 deals were traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.025 billion shares valued at N9.911bn that exchanged hands the previous week in 19,375 deals.
The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 769.350 million shares valued at N7.238bn traded in 8,530 deals, thus contributing 77.83 per cent and 52.30 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
The conglomerates industry followed with 55.223 million shares worth N92.483m in 719 deals. The third place was occupied by the Information and Communication Technology industry with a turnover of 42.080 million shares worth N4.144bn in 839 deals.
