Airtel Africa Plc has said that it is on the first closing of the transaction to sell its telecommunications tower company in Madagascar to Helios Towers plc. According to the Group, the total consideration of $51.7m from this transaction will be used to reduce external debt, invest in network, as well as sales infrastructure in Madagascar. Meanwhile at the floor of the Stock Exchange profit-taking in bellwether stocks – ZENITH (-2.0%), WAPCO (-2.6%), and GTCO (-1.1%) dragged performance as the NGX All-Share Index fell by 9bps to 41,975.45 points. Correspondingly, the market capitalisation shed ₦19.8bn to ₦21.9tn while YTD return weakened to 4.2%. Market activity weakened as volume and value traded fell 8.2% and 37.2% respectively to 292.9m units and ₦2.1bn. FBNH (58.6m units), MULTIVERSE (32.1m units), and MBENEFIT (21.6m units) were the most traded stocks by volume while FBNH (₦614.8m), WAPCO (₦150.7m), and GTCO (₦148.0m) led the market in terms of value.
Performance was negative across sectors within our coverage as 4 indices lost, 1 gained while the AFR-ICT index remained flat. The Insurance and Banking indices led laggards, down 1.5% and 1.0% respectively due to sell-pressure on AIICO (-4.7%), MANSARD (-3.5%), ZENITH (-2.0%), and GTCO (-1.1%). Trailing, the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed 0.2% and 0.1% lower sequentially, following price decline in WAPCO (-2.6%), ARDOVA (-7.5%), and ETERNA (-6.2%). However, the Consumer Goods index emerged as the lone gainer, up 0.1% due to buying interest in HONYFLOUR (+9.8%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), strengthened to 0.7x from 0.3x as 13 stocks gained while 20 stocks lost. UNIVINSURE (+10.0%), MULTIVERSE (+10.0%), and HONYFLOUR (+9.8%) led gainers while LASACO (-9.4%), CHAMS (-8.3%), and SOVRENINS (-8.3%) led the laggards. In the penultimate trading session, we expect the market to extend the bearish performance in absence of any positive driver.
Market Statistics for Wednesday, 3rd November 2021
| Market Cap (N’bn) | 21,905.5 |
| Market Cap (US$’bn) | 53.3 |
| NGX All-Share Index | 41,975.45 |
| Daily Performance % | 0.1 |
| WTD Performance % | 0.2 |
| MTD Performance % | 0.2 |
| QTD Performance % | 4.4 |
| YTD Performance % | 4.2 |
| Daily Volume (Million) | 292.9 |
| Daily Value (N’bn) | 2.1 |
| Daily Value (US$’m) | 5.0 |
