By Dipo Olowookere
Trading activities closed bearish on Friday on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), going down by 0.15 per cent on sustained profit-taking.
The benchmark performance indicator, which is the All-Share Index (ASI), depreciated by 37.13 per cent at the close of business to 25,199.84 points from 25,236.97 points.
Similarly, the market capitalisation, which measures the total value of stocks on the bourse, reduced by N19 billion to N13.146 trillion from N13.165 trillion.
According to data harvested by Business Post, the loss suffered by the market yesterday was as a result of the profit-taking in 23 stocks led by CAP, which lost 90 kobo to close at N17 per unit.
MTN Nigeria depreciated by 50 kobo to finish at N119 per share, Unilever Nigeria lost 50 kobo to close at N12.50 per unit, Northern Nigerian Flour Mills lost 43 kobo to close at N3.87 per unit, while Cadbury Nigeria fell by 30 kobo to N7.45 per share.
It was observed that the market printed only 13 price gainers on Friday led by C&I Leasing, which grew by 40 kobo to close at N4.40 per unit.
BUA Cement appreciated by 30 kobo to end at N38.90 per share, Fidson appreciated by 17 kobo to sell for N3.70 per share, Red Star Express gained 10 kobo to finish at N3.75 per share, while Africa Prudential garnered 10 kobo to settle at N4.40 per unit.
An analysis of the sectorial performance showed that the market was depressed by the consumer goods sector, which lost 0.68 per cent, the insurance sector, which fell by 0.55 per cent and the banking space, which crashed by 0.19 per cent.
Only the industrial goods counter closed positive yesterday after rising by 0.24 per cent, while the energy index closed flat.
Despite the poor outing of the market on Friday, the level of activity improved as the trading volume, value and number of deals traded by investors rose by 86.96 per cent, 169.58 per cent and 7.06 per cent respectively.
At the close of transactions, a total of 482.5 million shares worth N4.5 billion were exchanged in 3,897 deals compared with the 258.1 million stocks worth N1.7 billion traded in 3,640 deals on Thursday.
Shares of Wapic Insurance were busy yesterday as investors traded a total of 101.1 million units of the company’s stocks worth N33.4 million.
Unilever Nigeria transacted 67.9 million shares for N848.5 million, Zenith Bank traded 58.1 million equities valued at N969.4 million, Access Bank exchanged 47.1 million stocks for N305.5 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 46.5 million shares for N232.9 million.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka