Nigerian stocks fall, wipe out early year gains

Nigerian stocks’ first fall for the year on Thursday saw the market give up its two previous daily gains as investors looked away from a good number of the shares of Airtel Africa put up for sale, pushing the benchmark index 1.53 per cent down and the year-to-date yield into the red.

The telco, the most capitalised company on the bourse, shed 8.3 per cent as the day’s second biggest loser, underscoring the magnitude of its drop on the main index.

As of Wednesday, more companies announced their closed period in the warm-up to the publication of their earnings reports for the financial year that just went by.