Eterna, Unilever Nigeria, Courteville Business Solutions, Nigerian Exchange Group and Cutix topped the losers’ table in the just concluded week’s trading, as the domestic stock market settled in the red zone.
Investors at the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited had lost N12.58bn Week-on-Week when the market capitalisation closed on Friday at N21.93tn, even as the All-Share Index moderated WoW by 0.06 per cent to close at 42,014.50 basis points.
The companies’ trading for the week showed that sell-off was most seen on their share prices. Eterna lost 15 per cent to close at N7.31, followed by Unilever, whose share price fell by 14 per cent to N13.35. While Courtville and NGXGROUP suffered 11 per cent loss apiece to close at N0.39 and N17.75 respectively, CUTIX share price declined by 10 per cent to N5.65.
The week’s trading had seen investors take profit amid bearish sentiment that trailed the equities market, leaving three of the five indices tracked to close in the red territory.
As a result, the banking, oil and gas and consumer foods indices traded southwards by 1.73 per cent, 1.63 per cent and 0.74 per cent to close at 403.27bps, 384.54bps and 565.30bps respectively.
But the insurance and industrial indices traded northwards by 0.99 per cent and 0.88 per to close at 181.70bps and 2,196.62bps.
Generally, market activity was weak as deals, volume and the value of stocks traded decreased by 9.88 per cent, 51.63 per cent and 65.64 per cent to 23,987 deals, 1.43 billion units and N12.37bn respectively.
A notable development during the week under review was MTN Group’s intention to proceed with a public offer for the sale of up to 575 million shares in its subsidiary, MTN Nigeria.
Disclosing this during the week, MTNN said the proposed offering was part of the 14 per cent share sale plan by the parent company, MTN Mauritius, to retail and institutional investors.
Given the current stake of 76.1 per cent by the parent company in MTNN, the initial volume offering of 575 million shares represents 3.7 per cent of the total interest by the parent company, analysts at CSL Stockbrokers Limited said.
“We believe this is an interesting development for the share price, as the news and the expectations around what it will do for MTN revenue will most likely drive the share price up, which is good for MTN’s share sale,” they added.
Meanwhile, Regency Alliance Insurance topped the gainers table, as the company’s share price appreciated by 19 per cent to close at N0.44. This was followed by Multiverse Mining and Exploration whose share price rose by 10 per cent to close at N0.22. While Wema Bank’s shares rose by nine per cent to settle at N0.88, the share prices of Fidson Healthcare and University Press gained six per cent apiece to close at N6.54 and N2.30 respectively.
The local bourse index is expected to close northwards, as investors respond positively to the proposed sale of the MTN shares to institutional and retail investors.
“We feel investors will also position in those companies that have printed higher profitability and are likely to pay good dividends in full year 2021,” analysts at Cowry Asset Management said.
