Floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange Nigerian stocks hit a new milestone on Monday as a tense investor scramble for the shares of the country’s biggest telecommunications companies – MTN Nigeria (MTNN) and Airtel Africa – catapulted the benchmark index by 2.93 per cent to 43,246.87 points equivalent to a market capitalisation, the peak level since February 2018.
That feat will bolster Nigerian Exchange’s capacity to close the year with another positive return after yielding 50 per cent in 2020 even though the current foreign exchange scarcity has starved the market of foreign investors’ dollars.
The two wireless operators on Friday announced receipt of a tentative nod of banking sector watchdog the Central Bank of Nigeria to start a payment service bank.
Airtel and MTNN topped PREMIUM TIMES weekly stock recommendation published earlier on Monday and ranked first and fourth respectively of the best performing stocks of the day.
On the flip side, market breadth, which indicates investors’ attitude towards trade, was negative as 18 gainers emerged compared to 26 gainers
The all-share index enlarged by 1,232.27 basis points, while market capitalisation rose to N643 billion at the end of trade.
Year to date, the index is up by 7.39 per cent. TOP FIVE GAINERS
Airtel led gainers, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N858. Red Star Express added 9.94 per cent to end today’s trade at N3.43. Cutix went up by 9.91 per cent to N6.21. MTNN rose to N192.50, notching up 9.62 per cent in the process. Unilever completed the top 5, climbing by 9.36 per cent to N14.60. TOP FIVE LOSERS
Conoil led laggards, declining 9.80 per cent to close at N23. CWG fell to N1.02, losing 9.73 per cent. Custodian dipped to N7.65, recording 9.47 per cent depreciation. Honeywell Flour shed 9.07 per cent to close at N3.31. Africa Prudential closed at N4.72, going down by 6.05 per cent. TOP FIVE TRADES
In all, 443.6 million shares estimated at N5 billion were traded in 5,233 deals.
Sterling was the most active stock with 81.2 million units of its shares worth N121.8 million traded in 67 deals. UACN transacted 67.2 million shares priced at N706.4 million in 57 trades. FBN Holdings traded 42.2 million shares estimated at N473.4 million in 305 transactions. Zenith traded 32.6 million shares valued at N797.3 million in 346 deals. Transcorp had 21 million shares valued at N21.6 million traded in 133 deals. […]
