By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued its downward movement on Friday as the equity market sank deeper by 3.38 percent with the year-to-date gain shrinking to -3.73 percent.
Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI) suffered its heaviest loss this year after going down by 1288.25 points to finish at 36,816.29 points, while the market capitalisation depreciated by N466.6 billion to settle at N13.336 trillion.
Also, the volume of equities transacted by investors at the market decreased by 68.05 percent, while the value declined by 89.89 percent.
A total of 516.8 million shares were sold on Friday in 5,031 deals worth N7.2 billion compared with the 1.6 billion equities traded on Thursday in 5,166 deals valued at N71.2 billion.
It was observed that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 458 million shares transacted for N5 billion with the Consumer Goods sector following with 21.4 million shares exchanged for N1.7 billion.
On the price movement chart, Nestle Nigeria emerged the biggest price loser after losing N42.50k to close at N1430 per share.
It was followed by Dangote Cement, which fell by N17 to finish at N223 per share, and Total Nigeria, which declined by N10.30k to settle at N201.70k per share.
Guinness Nigeria depreciated by N5 to end at N95 per share, while Nigerian Breweries decreased by N4.90k to close at N103 per share.
At the other side, CCNN topped the gainers’ table at the close of business on Friday, going up by N1.30k to end at N27.95k per share.
It was trailed by Access Bank, which increased by 55k to close at N10.95k per share, and Eterna, which went up by 30k to finish at N6.33k per share.
UBA grew by 20k to close at N11 per share, while Fidelity Bank appreciated by 9k to settle at N1.99k per share.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka