Buying Pressure on Airtel Africa lifts the NGX by N980 billion

The NGX, Nigeria’s major stock market saw a gain of N979.78 billion in the mid-week trading session, recovering from the previous session’s loss as investors showed increased interest in 27 other companies, including Airtel Africa.

The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) closed at 103,498.28 index points, up 1,790.58 index points, or 1.76 percent.

Additionally, the market capitalization increased from N55.653 trillion to N56.633 trillion at the close of business the day before, a gain of N979.78 billion.

The NGX Oil & Gas Index gained 5.3%, NGX Consumer Goods gained 4%, and NGX Banking grew by 2%, while the NGX Industrial Goods declined by 3.5 percent and the NGX Insurance fell by 0.3 percent. The performance of the various sectors was uneven.

The NGX Year-to-Date and Month-to-Date returns increased sequentially to +38.4% and +2.3%, respectively.

The market was in a good mood as seen by the market breadth, with 28 equities rising compared to 25 falling. The biggest price gainers were Juli, with a gain of 9.91 percent to close at N1.22 per share, followed by Unity Bank and Airtel Africa, with gains of 10.00 percent apiece to settle at N2.42 and N2,200.00, respectively.

Morison Industries increased by 9.82 percent to conclude at N3.02 a share, while FBN Holdings rose by 9.90 percent to close at N27.20.

Conversely, NCR Nigeria, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria, and MeCure Industries emerged as the top three losers on the chart, closing at N4.32, N2.25, and N9.72 per share, respectively, after losing 10% of their respective shares.

Meyer came next, closing at N6.22 after losing 9.99 percent, while BUA Cement dropped 9.91 percent to N150.00 a share.

With 8,654 trades and a total volume transacted of 426.861 million units valued at N12.107 billion, the volume traded increased by 62.19 percent. The activity was dominated by transactions involving FBNH shares, with 54.611 million shares valued at N1.479 billion. Following with an account of 47.658 million shares valued at N1.173 billion was United Bank for Africa (UBA), while Access Holdings traded 46.045 million shares worth N1.092 billion.