By Dipo Olowookere
Transactions at the nation’s stock market further closed bearish on Friday as investors continue to rebalance their portfolio, selling off some of the large-cap stocks in their holdings to take profit.
This led to the 0.22 percent decline recorded by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) at the close of business to further extend the year-to-date loss to 14.56 percent.
Some of the worst hit included MTN Nigeria, which topped the losers’ chart after depreciating by N1 to close at N118 per unit, while Dangote Cement followed with 30 kobo to finish at N142.70 per share.
GTBank lost 20 kobo to close at N29.90 per unit, UBA also went down by 20 kobo to settle at N6.70 per share, while University Press depreciated by 11 kobo to close at N1.35 per unit.
Business Post reports that the upward trend in UAC Nigeria this week continued on Friday as the company’s stock led the gainers’ table after adding 55 kobo to its share price to close at N8.60 per unit.
Dangote Sugar appreciated by 20 kobo to end at N15 per unit, Access Bank also improved by 20 kobo to close at N9.25 per unit, Sterling Bank gained 8 kobo to settle at N1.98 per share, while Trans-Nationwide Express increased by 7 kobo to trade at 99 kobo per share.
At yesterday’s session, the volume of shares transacted by investors went down by 4.93 percent from 207.3 million to 197.0 million, while the total increased by 24.13 percent from N2.9 billion to N3.5 billion.
UAC Nigeria was the most traded stock by volume, selling 33.0 million units worth N282.9 million and was followed by Access Bank, which traded 28.7 million units valued at N263.7 million.
UBA exchanged 24.4 million shares for N164.1 million, Zenith Bank traded 18.9 million equities worth N354.4 million, while Dangote Cement transacted 12.8 million shares valued at N1.8 billion.
At the close of transactions on Friday, the All-Share Index (ASI) depleted by 58.18 points to 26,855.52 points from 26,913.70 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N28 billion to N12.962 trillion from N12.990 trillion.
