…As MTN Nigeria revenue hits N856.48bn in 9 months of 2019***
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) crucial market indices inched 0.25 per cent on Wednesday, and rewarded investors with about N32 billion, due to renewed buying interest occasioned by the low price of equities.
Market capitalisation rose by N32 billion to close higher at N12.807 trillion against N12.775 trillion on Tuesday, just as the All-Share Index (ASI) grew by 66.38 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 26,310.77 compared with 26,244.39 on Tuesday.
The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are Dangote Cement, UACN, Access Bank, University Press and MTN Nigeria.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said “we maintain our bearish outlook for the rest of the week in the absence of any major market drivers.
“However, we see opportunities for bargain hunting in stocks with sound fundamentals,’’ they said.
In spite of the growth in market indices, market breadth closed negatively, with eight gainers against 11 losers.
University Press led the gainers’ table in percentage terms, growing by 10 per cent to close at N1.21 per share.
Law Union & Rock Insurance trailed with a gain of 8.89 per cent to close at 49k while UACN rose by 7.50 per cent to close at N6.45 per share.
Dangote Cement inched 2.05 per cent to close at N149 while Access Bank garnered 2.04 per cent to close at N7.50 per share.
Conversely, Afromedia led the laggards’ table in percentage terms, dropping by 9.76 per cent to close at 37k.
Flour Mills followed with a loss of 9.68 per cent to close at N14 while Wema Bank shed 6.67 per cent to close at 56k per share.
Lafarge Africa dipped by 6.62 per cent to close at N13.40 while Unity Bank was down by 6.35 per cent to close at 59k per share.
However, the total volume traded declined by 41.45 per cent with an exchange of 156.85 million shares valued at N1.81 billion transacted in 3,088 deals.
This was against a turnover of 267.89 million shares worth N2.77 billion achieved in 2,967 deals on Tuesday.
Multiverse topped the activity chart with 25 million shares valued at N5 billion.
Sterling Bank traded 19.45 million shares worth N38.36 billion and Access Bank transacted 18.71 million shares valued at N139.79 million.
Zenith Bank traded 14.50 million shares worth N245.83 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 11.03 million shares valued at N63.44 million.
Meanwhile, the MTN Nigeria Communications Plc on Wednesday announced a revenue of N856.48 billion for nine months ended Sept. 30, 2019.
The revenue figure is on the company’s nine months unaudited result posted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) website.
The unaudited result showed that the revenue represented a growth of 12.03 per cent when compared with N764.46 billion achieved in the corresponding period of 2018.
Profit after tax dropped to N148.32 billion during the period under review in contrast with N157.19 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2018, a decrease of 5.64 per cent.
Also read: NSE: Investors lose N68bn, as market indices dip 0.53%, amid profit taking on blue chips
Also, profit before tax stood at N212.01 billion in contrast with N227.08 billion in 2018, representing a decrease of 6.63 per cent.
The company’s Earnings Per Share stood at 729k during the review period and lower than 772k achieved in the comparative period of 2018.
The company said that its mobile subscribers during the period increased by 0.1 million to 61.6 million.
Also, active data users increased by 1.6 million to 22.3 million, while service revenue rose by 12.1 per cent to N854.9 billion.
Commenting on the performance, Mr Ferdi Moolman, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, said that it was currently exploring financing options to diversify funding sources.
Moolman said that the company’s performance was very encouraging and also demonstrated the resilience of its business despite challenging environment.
“We sustained double-digit growth in service revenue led by growth in voice and data revenue.
“We are currently exploring financing options, including the issuance of Commercial Papers as part of our debt strategy to diversify our funding sources and optimise overall funding costs.
“In the remaining quarter of the year, we will continue to prioritise the expansion of our 4G network, coverage and drive active data subscriber growth.
“We expect voice and data revenue to continue to grow on the back of subscriber growth and increasing demand for data services.
“Having launched our Super-Agent services, our goal is to build a network of 100,000 agents by year-end.
“Super -Agent has always been a part of our MoMo plan and obtaining the licence shows we are on track with our plans.
“While we continue to engage with the Central Bank of Nigeria regarding obtaining a Payment Service Bank licence, we are fully harnessing opportunities that Super-Agent licence brings,” Moolman said.