JSE halts trade in MTN shares
Economist David Shapiro says the implications of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's decision to halt all trade in MTN shares are unclear at this stage.
The JSE made the announcement earlier today after significant volatility, which saw MTN's stock fall by roughly 20% last week.
It comes after the Nigerian Communications Commission last week said the mobile operator will need to fork out some R70-billion for failure to disconnect millions of users with unregistered sim cards.
Shapiro is a director at Sasfin Securities and says communication from MTN has been poor leaving many in the dark.
''A vast amount of the earnings of MTN come out of Nigeria, and should the fine go ahead, it could put the operations under a lot of pressure for a long time.
''MTN had last week, a market capitalisation of about R352-billion. Since then it has lost about R70-billion or R80-billion in market capture, it's falling dramatically,'' he said.
UPDATE: The JSE says trading has now resumed in MTN shares.
The JSE has halted all trading on MTN Group Limited. Trading will resume as soon as MTN Group Limited has issued a SENS announcement.
— JSE (@JSE_Group) November 2, 2015(File photo: Getty Images)