Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The profit-taking at the nation’s stock market continued on Friday and further led to a decline by 0.94 per cent when activities were brought to an end.
Dangote Cement and other ‘big guys’ on the exchange were responsible for the bearish outcome as the cement stock lost N16 to finish at N183 per unit.
Julius Berger depreciated by 85 kobo to close at N17.55 per share, GlaxoSmithKline lost 20 kobo to sell at N6.50 per unit, Unilever Nigeria went down by 15 kobo to N12.90 per share, while Neimeth lost 14 kobo to end at N2.20 per unit.
At the other side, Guinness Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart after its share price went up by 95 kobo to N17 per unit and was trailed by Zenith Bank, which appreciated by 70 kobo to sell at N22.70 per share.
Vitafoam grew by 55 kobo to N6.90 per unit, GTBank gained 55 kobo to trade at N32.90 per share, while FBN Holdings appreciated by 55 kobo to quote at N6.85 per unit.
As reflected on the gainers’ table, there was bargain hunting in banking stocks and led to the 2.54 per cent growth in their index, though this could not overturn the loss in the industrial goods sector (-4.09 per cent) caused by Dangote Cement.
The insurance sector appreciated by 2.10 per cent and this may have been caused by the mopping up of insurance equities issuing bonus shares. The energy sector grew yesterday by 0.37 per cent, while the consumer goods counter appreciated by 0.18 per cent.
During the trading day, a total 796.1 million shares worth N4.5 billion exchanged hands in 4,810 deals compared with the previous day’s N553.9 million stocks worth N6.6 billion traded in 6,441 deals.
There was a huge sale of Jaiz Bank shares at the market yesterday as 401.2 million units worth N260.8 million exchanged hands.
Regency Alliance Insurance traded 59.1 million units valued at N11.8 million, Access Bank transacted 49/4 million shares for N386.0 million, Zenith Bank traded 47.8 million equities valued at N1.1 billion, while FBN Holdings exchanged 28.9 million stocks for N190.4 million.
Business Post reports that at the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 326.52 points to settle at 34,250.74 points as against the previous day’s 34,577.26 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N170 billion to close at N17.902 trillion versus N18.072 trillion of Thursday.
