Weekly Market Wrap: MTN stock price down 3.5%

KAMPALA - The MTN Uganda stock price fell 3.53% to sh261 towards the close of the week at the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). 

This followed MTN announcement that it will hold a special shareholder meeting to vote on a proposed plan to separate its mobile money (MTN MoMo) business from its core telecom operations on July 2.

As a result, turnover on the USE jumped sharply as some MTN investors sold off their shares. According to Crested Capital total volumes during the week rose, with 6.04 million shares changing hands compared to 1.45 million previously at the bourse across seven counters.

MTN accounted for nearly 88% of the turnover with sh741.28m worth of shares exchanged. Bank of Baroda Uganda (BOBU) followed with sh67.68m, representing 8% of activity.

Stanbic Holdings moved shares worth sh22.19m while Airtel Uganda traded sh9.42m. Uganda Clays (UCL) and Quality Chemical Limited (QCIL) registered modest trades of sh3.49m and sh89,000 respectively. NIC traded just sh40,000.

The USE All Share Index rose 0.67% to close at 1,267.11 points. However, the Crested Capital Local Companies Index (C11) slipped 1.42% to 122.61.

On the price front, BOBU was the top gainer among locally listed stocks, rising 5.76% to sh32.50 per share. Stanbic dipped slightly by 0.04% to sh47.75.

Other local counters, including dfcu (sh253.0), NIC (sh5.0), New Vision (sh152.0), QCIL (sh89.0), BAT Uganda (sh15,000) and UCL (sh6.5), saw no movement in their share prices.

Among cross-listed stocks, Centum Investments and East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) posted gains of 2.74% and 2.59%, respectively. Equity Bank rose 5.76% to sh1,266.24, Kenya Airways climbed 6.14% to sh134.56, and Nation Media Group added 4.72% to end at sh325.96.

On the downside, KCB Group fell 0.87% to sh1,211.91, while Jubilee Holdings dropped 0.99% to close at sh6,190.36.