By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 0.27 per cent lower on Monday after investors offloaded some of their shares in the banking and industrial goods sector of the market.
This resulted in the 0.38 per cent loss in the industrial goods space and the 0.24 per cent decline suffered by the banking index.
The depreciation recorded by these two key counters weakened the gains printed by the insurance space (2.89 per cent), oil/gas sector (0.49 per cent) and the consumer goods index (0.23 per cent).
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 67.17 points to 25,132.67 points from 25,199.84 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N35 billion to N13.111 trillion from N13.146 trillion.
Dangote Cement was the heaviest price loser yesterday, depreciating by N1 to settle at N135 per share and was closely followed by Vitafoam, which lost 30 kobo to quote at N5.45 per share.
UAC Nigeria fell by 15 kobo to N5.85 per share, International Breweries entered a new 52-low after shedding 10 kobo to sell for N2.75 each, while United Capital depreciated by 6 kobo to finish at N3.10 per unit.
On the other hand, MTN Nigeria gained N2.30 to finish at N117.80 per share, Julius Berger appreciated by N1.45 to settle at N16.50 per share, Unilever Nigeria gained N1.25 to trade at N13.75 per unit, Ardova rose by N1.20 to close at N13.95 per share, while Dangote Cement grew by 40 kobo to N12.30 per unit.
During the first trading session of the week, the level of activity weakened as the volume, value of stocks and the number of deals decreased by 66.59 per cent, 59.20 per cent and 7.70 per cent respectively.
A total of 161.2 million stocks worth N1.9 billion exchanged hands in 3,597 deals yesterday in contrast to the 482.5 million shares worth N4.5 billion transacted last Friday in 3,897 deals.
GTBank closed the session as the most active stock, transacting 19.0 million units valued at N472.2 million and was followed by a fellow tier-one lender, Zenith Bank, which traded 18.6 million equities worth N311.5 million.
Sterling Bank transacted 14.3 stocks for N16.8 million, FBN Holdings exchanged 12.7 million equities for N63.8 million, while International Breweries traded 11.2 million stocks for N31.1 million.
Adedapo Adesanya