By Dipo Olowookere
Portfolios of investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reduced on Wednesday by N7 billion as a result of the losses printed by 23 equities.
Business Post reports that the negative performance of these stocks led by Ardova Plc weakened the market at the midweek session by 0.04 per cent.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 12.48 points to 35,021.26 points from 35,033.74 points, while the market capitalisation decreased to N18.304 trillion from N18.311 trillion after the N7 billion loss.
During the session, 283.1 million shares worth N3.4 billion were traded by investors in 3,855 deals in contrast to the 306.9 million equities worth N3.3 billion transacted in 4,500 deals on Tuesday.
This indicated a 4.46 per cent rise in the value of trades, a 7.76 per cent decline in the volume of trades and a 14.33 per cent drop in the number of deals.
As earlier stated, Ardova was the worst-performing stock of the day because of the N1.25 decline it suffered, closing at N13.20 per share.
Fidson went down by 38 kobo to N4.50 per share, Neimeth lost 13 kobo to settle at N2.40 per unit, Julius Berger fell by 10 kobo to N18.40 per share, while Champion Breweries lost 8 kobo to trade at 90 kobo per share.
On the opposite side, FCMB closed the session on top of the risers’ chart after it added 8 kobo to its value to settle at N3.08 per share.
Stanbic IBTC appreciated by 5 kobo to close at N44.05 per unit, Zenith Bank gained 5 kobo to trade at N23.45 per share, Livestock Feeds grew by 4 kobo to N1.40 per unit, while Unity Bank gained 3 kobo to finish at 67 kobo per share.
Apart from the industrial goods sector, which closed flat, every other sector ended bearish with the insurance space losing 1.04 per cent. The energy index declined by 0.37 per cent, the banking counter fell by 0.07 per cent, while the consumer goods sector declined by 0.03 per cent.
Editor’s Note:
The headline has been corrected to N7bn, not N7. We sincerely apologise for the error.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka