• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Airtel, others fuel market’s negative open to new week

Stocks rally further by 0.27%

Nigeria’s equities market extended its profit taking activities on Monday as investors sold stocks like Airtel Africa Plc and NCR Plc which powered the negative close on the Bourse.

Airtel Africa share price dipped most, from N1548.70 to N1420, losing N128.70 or 8.31percent, followed by that of NCR which dropped from N2.35 to N2.12, losing 23kobo or 9.79percent.

The market’s benchmark performance indicator dropped by 2.08percent while listed equities value decreased by N622billion.Also, its year-to-date (YTD) positive return decreased to +4.88percent on Monday. The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and its equities Market Capitalisation depreciated from preceding day’s 54,892.53 points and N29.903trillion respectively to 53,750.77 points and N29.281trillion.

Read also: Here’re how FMDQ Securities Exchange markets performed in February

“Looking ahead, we expect risk-on sentiments to be sustained in the equities markets even as the depressed interest rate environment will continue to favour the local bourse in line with our expectations for Q1-2023.

“Taking positions in stocks with solid valuations and dividend yields ahead of the dividend-paying season remains the choice strategy. However, we see room for extended profit-taking activities,” according to United Capital research analysts in their March 27 note.

GTCO, Zenith Bank, UBA, MTNN, and FBN Holdings were actively traded stocks on the NGX where investors in 3,279 deals exchanged 100,882,822 shares valued at N4.342billion.