By Dipo Olowookere
Trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) almost closed flat on Friday after staying in the red territory in most part of the session.
Business Post reports that the market managed to finish 0.01 percent higher at the close of transactions, with the year-to-date loss at 14.32 percent.
Despite Fidelity Bank posting an impressive performance in its much-anticipated half year results, investors continued to show concerns on the health of the financial firms trading their equities at the stock market, especially tier-2 banks and insurance companies.
The All-Share Index (ASI) closed at 32,766.37 points yesterday after rising slightly by 3.02 points, while the market capitalisation settled at N11.962 trillion after increasing by just N1 billion.
On Friday, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 154.4 million shares exchanged for N1.9 billion, while the Consumer Goods sector followed with 9.9 million shares transacted for N730 million.
At the close of trading, Seplat topped the gainers’ chart after adding N8 to its share value to settle at N630 per share.
It was trailed by Okomu Oil, which appreciated by N6.90k to finish at N77 per share, and Stanbic IBTC, which rose by N2.70k to ended at N46 per share.
CCNN went up by N2.30k to settle at N25.30k per share, while CAP increased by N1.25k to end at N28.45k per share.
On the flip side, Nestle Nigeria recorded the heaviest price loss after going down by N32.50k to finish at N1400 per share.
Guinness Nigeria went down by N6.15k to quote at N80 percent, while UAC of Nigeria reduced by N1.15k to finish at N10.70k per share.
Julius Berger declined by N1.10k to close at N23.90k per share, while NASCON shed 50 kobo to finish at N18.50k per share.
Business Post reports that the volume and value of equities transacted by investors on Friday appreciated by 19.60 percent and 3.41 percent respectively.
At the close of business yesterday, investors traded a total of 184.5 million shares valued at N2.8 billion in 2,269 deals compared with the 154.3 million equities worth N2.7 exchanged in 2,715 deals on Thursday.
A further look at the activity chart showed that UBA was the most active stock on Friday, trading a total of 44.5 units of its stocks worth N371.6 million.
It was followed by GTBank, which sold 25.9 million units valued at N945.9 million, and Access Bank, which exchanged 19.4 million equities for N157 million.
Fidelity Bank transacted 12.8 million shares for N21.8 million, while Zenith Bank traded 11.4 million equities valued at N243.2 million.
Adedapo Adesanya