Stock trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued on a downward trend Monday as the All Share Index shed 0.83 percent to close the day at 25,587.09 points, compared to 0.52 percent lost last Friday when it closed at 25,802.54 points.
Market capitalization also dropped N74.3 billion to close at N8.818 trillion, further lowering overall market value from previous closing session’s N46 billion loss when the market cap settled at N8.892, bringing the Year-to Date return to -4.82 percent.
The index performance showed most indices trended southwards, except the Consumer Goods Index that advanced slightly by 0.02 percent following appreciation recorded in Dangote Sugar and Nigerian Breweries.
However, a sharp decline in blue chip companies such as Total, Dangote Cement, Guinness, PZ, GSK and others robbed of negatively on the Main Board, Oil and Gas and Industrial indices that shed 0.73, 0.52 and 0.9 percent respectively.
Despite the downturn, stakeholders moved 152.4 million shares, 5 percent higher than 144.6 million shares sold previously, while value of equities traded for the day dropped to N903.5 million, 25 percent lower than N1.2 billion recorded previously.
Investors’ optimism measured by market breadth remained weak with eight equities on the gainers’ chart against 25 on the losers’ chart.
UAC-Prop led the days decliners with a decline of 9.27 percent to close at N2.25, Air Service was next with a depreciation of 9.13 percent to close at N2.39, Glaxosmithkline lost 5 percent to close at N14.25, PZ Cussons shed 4.95 percent to close at N12.87 and Neimeth Pharmaceuticals depreciated 4.84 percent to close at 59 kobo per share.
The day’s gainers were topped by United Capital with 4.79 percent growth to close at N3.72, Livestock Feeds followed with a growth of 4 percent to close at 78 kobo per share while AIICO Insurance added 1.72 percent to close at 59 kobo. NEM increased 1.25 percent to close at 81 kobo and Dangote Sugar gained 0.67 percent to close at N6.05.
Most actively traded stock for the day was FBN Holdings that traded 25.3 million units of shares, worth N88.2 million, Standard Trust Alliance (STACO) was next with 20 million units valued at N10 million and Fidelity Bank was third with 13.6 million units of shares valued at N12.1 million. FCMB was the fourth most traded stock with 13.3 million units valued at N16.7 million while Zenith Bank emerged fifth on the day’s top traded list with 12.2 million units of shares at N187.3 million.
The day’s transactions were carried out in 2706 deals, compared to 2,350 deals in the previous session.
