By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed bearish on Wednesday following the losses recorded by 30 equities on the platform.
Japaul was the worst-performing stock at the midweek session, losing 10.00 per cent of its share value to settle for the day at 54 kobo per unit.
NEM Insurance depreciated by 9.91 per cent to close at N1.91 per unit, Champion Breweries further lost 9.76 per cent to trade at N1.85 per share, NPF Microfinance Bank declined by 9.47 per cent to N1.72 per unit, while Linkage Assurance tripped by 8.93 per cent to 51 kobo per share.
Business Post reports that only 16 equities ended on the gainers’ table yesterday with Seplat claiming the top spot after its share price rose by 10.00 per cent to N583 per unit.
AIICO Insurance improved by 5.22 per cent to N1.21 per share, Cornerstone Insurance gained 5.17 per cent to settle at 61 kobo per share, UAC Property appreciated by 5.00 per cent to 84 kobo per unit, while Cutix chalked up 4.21 per cent to sell for N2.23 per share.
Apart from the energy sector, which appreciated by 5.02 per cent and the banking space which closed flat, every other sector closed negative with the insurance counter losing 0.86 per cent, the consumer goods sector going down by 0.45 per cent and the industrial goods index dropping 0.41 per cent.
During the session, Zenith Bank was the most active stock with the sale of 41.4 million units worth N1.1 billion. It was trailed by GTBank, which sold 29.0 million stocks for N919.8 million.
United Capital traded 24.6 million equities for N145.3 million, Axa Mansard Insurance exchanged 17.6 million stocks worth N18.5 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 16.5 million shares valued at N115.8 million.
At the close of trading activities, a total of 244.3 million shares worth N4.1 billion were traded in 4,714 deals compared with the 222.6 million equities worth N5.4 billion exchanged in 4,470 deals the preceding session.
This indicated that the trading value reduced by 23.42 per cent, while the trading volume and the number of deals increased by 9.78 per cent and 5.46 per cent respectively.
For the benchmark index, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced on Wednesday by 175.56 points to 39,522.06 points from 39,697.62 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N92 billion to N20.678 trillion from N20.770 trillion.
