NSE indices sustain negative outlook, amid Airtel price loss

The Nigeria equities market recorded further dip on Tuesday due to huge loss reformed by Airtel Africa Plc.

Specifically, Airtel recorded the highest loss, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N283.50 per share.

UACN Property Development Company followed with a decline of 9.55 per cent to close at N1.42, while NCR Nigeria lost 9.09 per cent to close at N4.50 per share.

Courteville Business Solution dipped 8.70 per cent to close at 21k, while Continental Reinsurance shed 6.67 per cent to close at N1.40 per share.

Consequently, the All-Share Index which opened at 27,574.32 shed 168.28 points or 0.61 per cent to close at 27,407.04.

Similarly, the market capitalisation lost N81 billion to close at N13.342 trillion compared with N13.423 trillion achieved on Monday.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are: Airtel Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria, NCR Nigeria, Custodian Investment and Zenith Bank.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “In line with our expectations, we believe the bearish momentum will persist due to weak investors’ appetite toward the domestic equities market.”

However, market breadth closed positive, with 22 gainers against 15 losers.

Conversely, NEM Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 9.47 per cent to close at N2.14 per share.

Livestock Feeds came second with 9.52 per cent to close at 46k, while PZ Cussons Nigeria appreciated by 9.32 per cent to close at N6.45 per share.

Cornerstone Insurance went up by 9.09 per cent to close at 36k, while Chams appreciated by 8.33 per cent to close at 26k per share.

The total volume traded dropped 26.2 per cent with an exchange of 198.03 million shares, worth N2.9 billion traded in 3,830 deals.

This was against a turnover of 271.24 million shares valued at N2.N283 billion transacted in 4,795 deals on Monday.

The banking stocks remained the most traded with Access Bank leading the activity chart with 57.82 million shares worth N434.19 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 19.99 million shares valued at N382.23 million, while Sterling Bank accounted for 10.37 million shares worth N23.46 million.

FBN Holdings sold 10.36 million shares valued at N55.92 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) transacted 9.32 million shares worth N59.79 million.