By Dipo Olowookere
Trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) finished on a negative note on Thursday as the stock market falling by 0.24 percent at the close of business.
Also, the volume of shares transacted by investors today depreciated by 9.16 percent with a total of 175.752 million shares exchanged on Thursday against 193.477 million shares traded on Wednesday.
However, the total value of equities sold at the market today increased by 94.91 percent from N1.807 billion to N3.523 billion.
In addition, the market breadth closed negative with 21 price gainers and 22 price losers.
Furthermore, the all-share Index decreased by 87.43 points to settle at 37,051.54 points, while the market capitalisation deflated by N30.3 billion to close at N12.8 trillion.
Business Post reports that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 130.541 million shares exchanged for N1.833 billion.
It was closely followed by the Consumer Goods industry, which had 16.472 million shares traded for ₦0.556 billion.
GTBank closed the day’s trading as the most active stock by volume, exchanging 34.2 million shares worth N1.4 billion.
It was followed by Fidelity Bank, which transacted 29 million shares for N48 million, and FBN Holdings, which sold 19.9 million shares valued at N141.8 million.
FCMB traded 10.7 million shares worth N12.6 million, while Diamond Bank exchanged 9.5 million shares valued at N11.2 million.
On the price movement chart, Dangote Cement was the highest price loser, shedding N1.99k to settle at N229.1k per share.
Nigerian Breweries lost 89k to close at N143 per share, and NASCON fell by 63k to finish at N15.35k per share.
Zenith Bank slumped by 48k to end at N25.10k per share, while Dangote Sugar depreciated by 21k to settle at N15.25k per share.
On the flip side, Mobil led the price gainers log with N11.99k added to its share value to close at N165 per share.
It was trailed by International Breweries, which appreciated by N3.79k to close at N48.99k per share, and Forte Oil, which moved up by N2 to end at N42 per share.
Presco also increased by N2 to settle at N66 per share, while 7up improved by 60k to finish at N88 per share.
