MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria) has announced on the floor of the Stock Exchange, the intention of the MTN Group to proceed with a public offer for sale of up to 575 million shares in MTN Nigeria by way of a bookbuild to institutional investors and fixed price to retail investors.
According to the company, the Offer is the first step in MTN Group’s previously communicated plan to sell down c.14% of its current shareholding in MTN Nigeria.
The Offer is expected to open this month, November 2021 with a bookbuild for institutional investors after which a fixed price should be announced for retail investors in the same month.
Today, the local bourse extended its bearish performance as sell-offs in WAPCO (-1.9%), UBA (-2.4%), and ACCESS (-0.5%) pulled the NGX All-Share Index lower by 8bps to 41,943.83 points.
Consequently, the market capitalisation shed ₦16.5bn to ₦21.9tn while YTD return was unchanged at 4.2%. Market activity faltered as volume and value traded declined by 45.1% and 31.6% respectively to 160.9m units and ₦1.4bn.
FBNH (19.5m units), LASACO (10.6m units), and TRANSCORP (10.6m units) topped the volume chart while FBNH (₦208.3m), NGXGROUP (₦154.1m), and ZENITHBANK (₦130.5m) led the market by value.
Performance across sectors under our coverage was bearish as 4 indices lost, 1 gained while the AFR-ICT index remained flat.
The Oil & Gas index shed 0.6% to lead the laggards, following price depreciation in OANDO (-3.4%) and JAPAULGOLD (-5.0%).
Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Banking indices declined 0.6% and 0.5% respectively due to sell pressures on UNILEVER (-8.7%), GUINNESS (-7.3%), UBA (-2.4%) and ACCESS (-0.5%).
Losses in WAPCO (-1.9%) dragged the Industrial Goods index lower by 0.1%.On the flip side, the Insurance index gained 1.3% on the back of optimism in AIICO (+4.9%), MANSARD (+3.6%) and LINKASSURE (+7.6%).
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Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), weakened to 0.5x from 0.7x as 13 stocks advanced while 25 stocks declined.
SCOA (+9.5%), LINKASSURE (+7.5%), and OKOMUOIL (+5.2%) led gainers while PHARMDEKO (-10.0%), UNILEVER (-8.7%), and REDSTAREX (-8.2% ) led decliners. In the final trading session of the week, we anticipate that the bears would hold sway in the absence of positive catalysts.
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