By Dipo Olowookere
Trading activities at the local stock market ended bearish on Thursday following the 0.01 percent loss recorded at the session.
Equities in the consumer goods and the oil/gas sectors contributed to the decline yesterday as their respective indices depreciated by 0.64 percent and 0.44 percent.
Their outcome overpowered the gains printed by the insurance sector, banking index and industrial goods counter, which appreciated by 0.64 percent, 0.60 percent and 0.02 percent respectively.
Business Post reports that the profit-taking witnessed yesterday caused the All-Share Index (ASI) to reduce by 1.51 points to 24,276.56 points from 24,278.07 points.
It also contributed to the decrease in the market capitalisation by N1 billion, closing at N12.664 trillion as against N12.665 trillion it ended the previous day.
The market breadth closed negative on Thursday with 15 price losers and 10 price gainers due to the activities of profit takers.
Conoil was the heaviest price shedder, losing N2.10 to sell at N18.90 per unit, while Vitafoam lost 52 kobo to trade at N5.07 per share.
International Breweries continued its fall with a 35 kobo loss to close at N3.60 per share, Arbico fell by 18 kobo to N1.71 per unit, while Dangote Sugar crashed by 10 kobo to N11.50 per share.
At the other end, GTBank topped the gainers’ table with a price appreciation of 25 kobo to settle at N22.75 per unit, while PZ Cussons gained 15 kobo to sell at N4.35 per unit.
Ecobank appreciated by 15 kobo to trade at N4.75 per share, Zenith Bank was further fortified by 10 kobo to N16.75 per unit, while Law Union and Rock Insurance gained 7 kobo to quote at N1.07 per share.
On Thursday, the total volume of shares traded by market participants reduced by 17.42 percent to 192.1 million units from 232.6 million units.
Also, the value of transactions depreciated by 47.43 percent to N2.5 billion from N4.7 billion, while the number of deals improved by 8.80 percent to 3,833 deals from 3,523 deals.
Fidelity Bank was the most traded stocks yesterday, exchanging 38.1 million units worth N68.6 million, while GTBank followed with 23.6 million units valued at N534.5 million.
Zenith Bank traded 23.1 million stocks for N385.4 million, Access Bank transacted 11.4 million shares worth N73.9 million, while UBA traded 10.6 million equities valued at N68.1 million.
