Airtel, others drive N1.67trn gain in one week

…NGX listings soar to N6.23trn in October, Capital Hotels delists

Nigeria’s equities market rose by 4.56percent (N1.67trillion) as investors bought Airtel Africa, banking and insurance stocks in the trading week ended Friday November 3.

Remarkable rally by Airtel Africa helped push the market higher in the review week.
Sixty-three equities appreciated in price higher than 39 equities in the preceding week. Twenty-nine equities depreciated in price, lower than 42 in the preceding week, while 64 equities remained unchanged, lower than 76 recorded in the preceding week.

“In the absence of significant upside in Airtel Africa next week, we expect a slightly bearish market, as investors take profit on some of this week’s gainers,” said Vetiva Research analysts.

The market recorded four days of positive closes as against a day of loss. The market closed the week with year-to-date (YtD) return at 36.97percent. Month-to-Date (MtD) the market has risen by 1.39 percent.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities Market Capitalisation appreciated 70,196.77 points and N38.557trillion respectively as against preceding weekend when both market indicators closed at 67,136.58 points and N36.885 trillion.

Read also: Airtel pushes NGX ASI above 70,000 mark

NGX Banking Index rose by 2.67 percent, NGX Insurance (+7.96percent), NGX Industrial (+0.73percent), NGX Consumer Goods (+0.47percent), while NGX Oil & Gas Index remained unchanged in the week under review.

The market recorded total turnover of 2.451 billion shares worth N40.570 billion in 37,959 deals, in contrast to a total of 1.446 billion shares valued at N25.418 billion that exchanged hands the preceding week in 28,933 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.480 billion shares valued at N21.160 billion traded in 16,671 deals; thus contributing 60.39percent and 52.16percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Oil and Gas Industry followed with 354.911 million shares worth N1.214 billion in 2,917 deals, and the ICT Industry, with a turnover of 175.216 million shares worth N8.218 billion in 3,759 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely Japual Gold & Ventures Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 835.584 million shares worth N8.631 billion in 5,514 deals, contributing 34.09percent and 21.27percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Following the NGX approval of Capital Hotels Plc application to delist its entire issued share capital from the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the entire shares of the company were on Friday November 3 delisted from the Daily Official List of NGX.

In another related development, listings on Nigerian Exchange Limited crossed the N6 trillion mark at the end of October amid the uptick in capital market activity in the second half of 2023.

According to the X-Compliance report of NGX Regulation Limited (NGX RegCo), total equity, fixed income, exchange traded funds and mutual funds listed on NGX year-to-date as of October ending totalled N6.23trillion. This was majorly because of fixed income listings by Federal Government of Nigeria which rose drastically in October.

FGN fixed income listings consist of FGN Bonds, FGN Savings Bonds and Sukuk bonds. This amounted to N6.08trillion year-to-date (YtD). Also, the exchange admitted VFD Group and Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF) at market capitalisations of N46.5bn and N92.54billion respectively, in October representing the major equity listings on NGX in 2023.

Lagos State Government remains the only sub-national entity to raise capital on the exchange as its debt issuances hit N157.15billion. Other notable listings came from Dangote Industries Funding Plc, LFCZ Funding SPV Plc among others.

This also comes amid the strong performance in the equity secondary market, as the All-Share Index of NGX crossed the 70,000 mark with a 36.67percent YtD rise. Investors, both local and domestic continue to observe the market dynamics amid a drastic shift in monetary and fiscal policy.