Nigeria’s stocks gain N643bn as investors buy Airtel, MTNN

Nigeria’s equities market opened this week in green, gaining about N643billion on Monday November 8 as investors showed remarkable interest in shares of two leading telecommunication companies MTN Nigeria Plc and Airtel Africa Plc.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last Friday approved in principle the telcos’ mobile money business licences.

The apex bank gave an approval-in-principle for the proposed MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited, a payment service bank (PSB) owned by MTN Nigeria Communications Plc; while it also granted approval-in-principle (AIP) for Airtel Africa Plc’s Smartcash Payment Service Bank Limited to operate a payment service bank business in Nigeria. Final approval is subject to both telcos satisfying certain standard conditions within six months.

Shares of the two major telecommunication companies –MTN Nigeria Plc and Airtel Africa Plc topped advancers’ league on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Monday.

Read also: MTNN, Airtel shares rally as investors cheer mobile money approval

Airtel led the gainers after its share price increased from day-open low of N780 to N858, up by N78 or 10percent, followed by MTNN which rose from N175.60 to N192.50, up N16.90 or 9.62percent.

Also, Unilever moved from N13.35 to N14.60, up N1.25 or 9.36percent, while Redstar advanced from N3.12 to N3.43, up by 31kobo or 9.94percent. Likewise, Cutix moved up from N5.65 to N6.21, adding 56kobo or 9.91percent.

The stock market’s year-to-date (ytd) return reached new high of + 7.39percent at the close of trading as both the NGX All Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation moved from preceding day’s lows of 42,014.50 points and N21.926 trillion to 43,246.87 points and N22.569 trillion on Monday. In 5,233 deals, investors exchanged 443,606,073 units valued at N5.048billion. Sterling Bank, UACN, FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank and Transcorp were actively traded stocks on the Bourse.