Airtel Mobile Commerce takes up stake as sell pressure dampens stock market performance

Airtel Africa on the floor of the Nigeria Exchange announced the former introduction of Chimera Investment LLC as an additional investor in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (‘AMC BV’), the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations. Chimera Investment LLC’s minority equity stake in AMC BV follows a $50m secondary purchase of shares from a subsidiary of Airtel Africa plc, while Airtel Africa continues to hold the majority stake in AMC BV. Meanwhile, today at the Stock market profit-taking in DANGCEM (-1.2%), WAPCO (-1.6), and GTCO (-0.8%) doused the performance of the lmarket. Thus, the NGX All-Share Index dipped 21bps to 42,270.23 points while YTD return pared to 5.0% from 5.2%. In the same vein, the market capitalisation dipped ₦45.5bn to ₦22.1tn. Trading activity improved as volume and value traded rose 10.3% and 35.7% respectively to 249.4m units and ₦3.6bn. FBNH (79.1m units), ACCESS (33.3m units), and ETI (23.2m units) led by volume while FBNH (₦955.9m), MTNN (₦612.0m), and ACCESS (₦299.5m) led by value.

Performance across our coverage sectors was mixed as 3 indices gained, 2 lost while the AFR-ICT index closed flat. The Banking and  Oil & Gas indices gained 0.5% each due to price appreciation in GTCO (+0.8%), FBNH (-0.8%), and TOTAL (+2.4%). Meanwhile gains in DANGSUGAR (+1.5%) and UNILEVER (+0.4%) drove the Consumer Goods index 0.1% higher. Conversely, the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices declined 0.7% and 0.8% respectively following losses in DANGCEM (-1.2%), WAPCO (-1.6), AIICO (-2.9%), and MBENEFIT (-4.0%).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), weakened to 0.8x from 1.5x as 20 stocks lost while 15 stocks advanced. REDSTAREX (+5.0%), CHAMS (+4.8%), and NGXGROUP (+3.9%) led gainers while LIVESTOCK (-10.0%), UPDC (-8.3%), and CAP (-5.7%) led decliners. In the final trading session, we anticipate a mildly bullish close, supported by bargain buying.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 16th December 2021