Hero now holds 3% stake in Airtel as mixed sentiment drives muted stock performance

Airtel Africa Plc has notified the Nigerian exchange and the investing public of the acquisition of voting rights by Hero Inc. Limited (“Hero”), following the increase in its equity stake in the company above the threshold for non-controlling interest on 3rd September 2021. Consequently, Hero now holds 112,341,357 total voting rights, representing 2.99% of the total direct voting right, in the company. Trading at the Stock Market closed flat on the back of mixed sentiment despite the increase in trading activity. Consequently, the All-Share Index steadied at 39,251.29 points, YTD loss remained flat at -2.5% while market capitalisation moderated by ₦833.1m to remain at ₦20.5tn. Trading activity improved as volume and value traded rose by 68.7% and 107.6% to 355.9m units and ₦2.9bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (92.3m units), ACCESS (75.7m units), and UNIVINSURE (25.2m units) while ACCESS (₦711.9m), FBNH (₦687.7m), and ZENITH (₦346.4m) led by value.

Performance was mixed across sectors under our coverage as 2 indices advanced, 2 lost while the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices closed flat. The Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods were the advancers, up 1.0% and 0.5% respectively due to price appreciation in OANDO (+6.0%), INTBREW (+7.5%), and HONYFLOUR (+6.7%). Conversely, the Insurance and Banking indices recorded losses, down 0.9% and 0.3% respectively on the back of selloffs in NEM (-4.5%), CORNERST (-8.8%), FBNH (-0.7%), and ZENITH (-0.2%).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), waned to 0.8x from 1.3x as 15 stocks advanced while 20 stocks declined. UCAP (+8.0%), INTBREW (+7.5%), and HONYFLOUR (+6.7%) led the gainers while CORNERST (-8.8%), UNIVINSURE (-4.8%), and ETI (-4.5%) led the losers.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 7th September 2021