Market Value: MTN Remains Stagnant as Airtel Shareholders Lose N400bn
- About N400 billion was lost by Nigerian shareholders of a telecommunications company, Airtel
- The loss affected Airtel, as MTN Nigeria came from behind to top its rival on list of company with highest market valuation
- MTN Nigeria market capitalisation remained stagnant after trading flat throughout the week
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After one week of trading between May 17 and May 21 2021, Airtel Nigeria has lost its position as the most valuable telecommunications company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange to its market rival, MTN Nigeria.
At the start of last week, MTN was the third most valuable company in Nigeria by market capitalisation behind Dangote Cement and Airtel, but it closed trading as the second company with the most market valuation behind Aliko Dangote's firm.
The y'ello network surpassed the Bharti subsidiary after Airtel shareholders lost about N400 billion in five days, as its market capitalisation fell from N3.5 trillion it opened capital market with, to N3.1 trillion on Friday.
MTN didn't do much to leapfrog Airtel, as it just needed the latter's loss to occupy the second position, because the former started the week with N3.3 trillion market worth, and closed the week with the same valuation.
Source: Twitter
This shows more stakeholders dumped their shares in Airtel, as they engaged in a massive selloff. This affected the stock value of Airtel, which lost N93 after depreciating from N930 per share to N837 per share. During the same period, MTN Nigeria's share price had remained flat.
Nigeria has four mobile network providers, which includes Globacom and 9mobile, but only MTN and Airtel have listed their shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which made their data available to the public.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Nigeria's economy rose by 0.51% in the first quarter of 2021 after growing by 0.11% in the fourth quarter of last year.
While the gross domestic product grew in Q1 2021, it fell below the 1.87% which it recorded in the first quarter of last year. It however disappointed analysts, as it rose above projection.
Research firm, Financial Derivatives Company, had estimated that the country's economy will decline by -0.5% between January to March 2021, but NBS data reported otherwise.
Source: Legit.ng
