By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) could not sustain the early gains it recorded on the trading platform on Friday as a result of selling pressure.
By the time the market closed for the day, it was slightly down by 0.09 percent, leaving the year-to-date loss at 19.53 percent.
Business Post reports that the market capitalisation depleted yesterday by N10 billion to finish at N11.241 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 29.26 points to close at 30,773.64 points.
A total of 14 stocks recorded losses on Friday and were led by Seplat, which posted N.50k decline to settle at N584.50k per share.
It was followed by Dangote Cement, which depreciated by N3 to finish at N187 per share, and GTBank, which went down by 90 kobo to end at N33.80k per share.
Access Bank fell yesterday by 35 kobo to close at N7.05k per share, while FCMB declined by 8 kobo to settle at N1.65k per share.
On the other side, Mobil Oil Nigeria led the 29 appreciating equities on Friday after a gain of N16.80k to finish at N184.80k per share.
Nestle Nigeria followed with a N10.10k growth to close at N1470.10k per share, while Total Nigeria appreciated by N8 to end at N200 per share.
Okomu Oil grew by N3.20k to end at N76.20k per share, while Forte Oil increased its share value by N2.50k to settle at N28.45k per share.
Yesterday, the volume of share equities transacted by investors depreciated by 64.55 percent, while the value declined by 10.36 percent.
A total of 193.5 million shares worth N3.7 billion were traded on Friday compared with the 546 million shares worth N4.1 billion.
Adedapo Adesanya