By Dipo Olowookere
It was a bad day for investors in the Nigerian capital market as major market metrics finished in the negative territory at the close of transactions on Friday.
Business Post reports that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) declined yesterday by 1.01 percent, closing the week without a rise in any of the trading session. Also, the Year-to-Date (YtD) gain reduced to 2.83 percent.
The recent loses at the stock market despite the rise in crude oil prices at the international market is believed to be as a result of political happenings in the country.
Next year, Nigerians head to the polls to elect their leaders and foreign investors, who contribute more to the market, are pulling out their funds over uncertainty on outcome of the elections, especially with the perceived persecution of political opponents by the ruling government.
This, Business Post learned, is one of the major reasons for the profit-taking at the equity market in the past on week.
At the close of business yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 400.23 points to settle at 39,323.62 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N145 billion to finish at N14.244 trillion.
However, the volume and value of shares traded on Friday appreciated by 15.43 percent and 47.25 percent respectively.
A total of 296 million shares valued at N3 billion were transacted in 4,911 deals yesterday against the 256.4 million equities worth N2 billion sold the previous session in 4,111 deals.
Like in the past trading days, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 241.2 million shares exchanged for N2 billion, while the Consumer Goods sector, which followed, traded 15.8 million equities worth N478 million.
The most active stock at the market on Friday in terms of volume was FCMB, which sold 44 million shares worth N98.3 million.
It was trailed by Zenith Bank, which 22.2 million equities valued at N590.6 million, and UBA, which traded 21.4 million shares worth N228.2 million.
Furthermore, Regency Alliance Insurance transacted 20.8 million shares valued at N5.4 million, while FBN Holdings sold 20 million equities worth N194.1 million.
On the price movement chart, Guinness Nigeria emerged the heaviest price loser after going down by N4 to settle at N100 per share.
It was followed by Flour Mills Nigeria, which went down by N1.50k to close at N49 per share, and Julius Berger, which crashed by N1.45k to end at N27.55 per share.
Glaxosmithkline performed badly at the market yesterday after losing N1.02k of its share value to finish at N20.50k per share.
On the other hand, MRS led the gainers’ table, growing by N1.70k to close at N36.05k per share.
It was trailed by UACN, which increased by 55k to end at N15.05k per share, while Fidson Healthcare appreciated by 25k to settle at N5.95k per share.
Ikeja Hotel went up by 23k to close at N2.58k per share, while Sterling Bank managed to garner 6k to finish at N1.35k per share.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka