Trading at the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited closed positive in the just-concluded week amid buying interest especially on telecommunications stocks.
The week saw MTN International Mauritius offer for sale 575 million shares of its shareholding in MTN Nigeria Communications to high networth investors, even as NGX revealed that equities transactions in October rose on higher stake by local investors.
In the week under review, the NGX All-Share Index and market capitalisation rose by 0.25 per cent to close at 43,308.29 basis points and N22.598tn.
Except for the insurance index, which rose by 3.56 per cent to close at 183.058bps, the banking, consumer goods, oil and gas and industrial indices plummeted by 0.29 per cent, 2.00 per cent, 0.87 per cent and 0.03 per cent to close at 390.48bps, 549.62bps, 364.84bps, and 2,193.80bps respectively.
Market activity was mixed, as deals and volume of stocks traded declined by 2.06 per cent and 5.37 per cent to 19,990 deals and 1.39 billion units respectively, while the value of stock traded increased by 33.17 per cent to N27.89bn.
The MTN shares offer, which opened with a book build to institutional investors, is expected to close with a fixed price to retail investors.
“The offer is expected to close in December 2021. This is the first step in MTN Group’s previously communicated statement of intent to sell down approximately 14 per cent of its current shareholding in MTN Nigeria,” the company stated.
Meanwhile, NGX, in its recent report on domestic and foreign portfolio participation in equities trading, disclosed that total equities market transactions rose sharply in October compared to the value of transactions executed in September 2021.
The report showed that the ratio of total domestic transactions to total foreign transactions further tilted lower to 80:20 in the month under review, from 79:21 in September 2021. Total domestic transactions increased by 81.93 per cent while total foreign portfolio transactions rose by 74.21 per cent, as foreign investors’ inflows improved.
However, market watchers are hopeful that in the new week, the domestic bourse index would trade sideways, as investors wait on the sidelines to take advantage of declining stock prices.
“We expect more sales from retail investors than the institutional investors, as the yuletide beckons,” said analysts at Cowry Asset Management.
