Business

Equities market dips by 0.9%, weighed by losses in Airtel Africa

On Thursday, the bears gained dominance at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) after four consecutive days of bullish rally, closing the All Share Index (ASI) lower by 0.9 per cent to settle at 52,109.43 as investors book profits from mid-large cap stocks.

The market’s loss was primarily driven by the decline in telco heavyweight, Airtel Africa as it’s stocks dipped by 6.00 per cent.

Thus the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.6 per cent and +1.7 per cent, respectively.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 27 tickers lost relative to 22 gainers. On the performance board, Academy Press and Ardova topped the losers’ list after their respective share prices depreciated by 10.0 per cent and 9.9 per cent, while ABC Transport and MRS recorded the most significant gains of the day with 10.0 per cent increase recorded against their share prices.

Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Oil & Gas, Banking, and Insurance indices printed losses having depreciated by 0.5 per cent, 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent, while the Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods closed flat.

Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 34.77 per cent.

A total of 334.24 million shares valued at N5.15 billion were exchanged in 5,350 deals. Access Holdings led the volume chart with 64.69 million units traded, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company led the value chart in deals worth N1.34 billion.

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