Nigerian telco giants, Airtel Africa and MTN Nigeria have maintained their position as the most valuable quoted companies in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2023, with market capitalizations of N5.56 trillion and N4.89 trillion, respectively.
This is according to the data released from Nigerian Exchange (NGX) which includes cement-producing giants, Dangote and BUA Cement, as well as Consumer goods producers, BUA Foods and Nestle Nigeria.
Also, Zenith Bank, Geregu Power, Guaranty Trust Holdings, and Seplat Petroleum rounded up the list of the top ten most valuable companies in the country.
The ten companies are valued at N24.09 trillion as of 31st March 2023, accounting for about 82% of the total market value.
The Nigerian stock market rallied by 5.82% in the first quarter of 2023, capitalizing on the gains recorded in the previous year (2022: 19.98%).
The All-Share Index had opened the year at 51,251.06 basis points and closed the review quarter at 54,232.34 points.
In the same vein, the market capitalization gained N1.63 trillion between January and March 2023 to close the quarter at N29.54 trillion.
The market had enjoyed a strong positive start to the year, registering an 8.9% year-to-date gain as of the 9th of March 2023, before it began to decline, reaching 5.82% by the end of the quarter.
Nigeria’s telco giant, MTN Nigeria overtook Dangote Cement as the second most capitalized company in the Nigerian equities market in Q1 2023.
MTN Nigeria, which was valued at N4.38 trillion as of the end of 2022, recorded a growth of 11.6% to stand at N4.89 trillion by the end of March 2023, surpassing the 3.4% growth recorded in the share value of Dangote Cement.
Notably, the market value of Dangote Cement increased from N4.45 trillion at the beginning of the year to close the quarter at N4.6 trillion, representing an increase of N153.4 billion, compared to N508.9 billion for MTN Nigeria.
Although, the second position remains heavily contested between the two companies, as they tend to alternative month-in-month-out.
In the same vein, the telcos have also printed impressive numbers in their financials.
MTN Nigeria reported revenue of N2.01 trillion in 2022, an increase of 21.6% from N1.65 trillion recorded in the previous year. Net profit also increased by 21.1% to N361.5 billion.
Airtel Africa also recorded a 12.1% year-over-year revenue increase for the nine months ended December 2022 to $3.91 billion, although profit after tax only increased marginally by 1.7% to $523 million in the same period.