Airtel, 25 others drag stocks down, investors lose N340bn

The Nigerian stock market reversed all of last week’s gains on Tuesday as Airtel Africa Plc and 25 other companies recorded losses.

Investors lost N340bn at the end of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Tuesday, compared to a total gain of N230bn recorded last week. The NGX All-Share Index fell by 1.66 percent to 38,507.29 basis points from 39,156.28bps while the market capitalisation dropped to N20.07tn from N20.41tn.

The ASI and market capitalization had last week appreciated by 1.11 percent. A total of 297.35 million shares valued at N3.65 billion were traded by investors in 4,402 deals on Tuesday.

Airtel Africa, which led the losers’ table, saw its share price drop by 10 per cent to N753.30.Okomu Oil Palm Plc declined by 9.44 per cent to N105.50 per share while Cornerstone Insurance Plc fell by 9.09 per cent to N0.50 per share.

Learn Africa Plc lost eight per cent to close at N0.92 per share while Livestock Feeds Plc dropped by 4.74 per cent to N1.81 per share. Twenty stocks recorded price appreciation at the end of trading on Tuesday, with 12.40% FGN MAR 2036, CWG Plc, Berger Paints Nigeria Plc, Red Star Express Plc and NEM Insurance Company Plc leading the park.

Analysts at Cordros Capital Limited said trading at the domestic equities market opened the week on a sour note, as late sell-offs on Airtel Africa underpinned a 1.7 percent decline in the ASI to 38,507.33 points. They noted that the month-to-date gain declined to 0.2 per cent while the year-to-date loss increased to 4.4 percent.

“Analysing by sectors, the insurance (+0.4 per cent), banking (+0.2 per cent) and oil and gas (+0.1 per cent) indices closed higher while the consumer goods (-0.2 per cent) index declined. The industrial goods index closed flat,” they said.

The analysts had said on Friday that they expected investors to continue cherry-picking stocks ahead of the half-year 2021 dividend declarations. They said, “With the recent development in the fixed income market, we are approaching an inflexion point; we, therefore, see scope for increased buying interest from risk-averse investors. “Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”