By Dipo Olowookere
Activities on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed on a negative note on Monday with the exchange losing 0.12 percent to drop the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns to 5.71 percent as a result of bearish sentiment.
The All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated yesterday by 47.38 points to close at 40,425.07 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N17.2 billion to settle at N14.643 trillion.
The volume of shares traded by investors on Monday decreased by 22.61 percent just as the value of equities sold went down by 54.64 percent.
A total of 271.3 million shares were traded at the stock market yesterday in 4,052 deals worth N2.3 billion in contrast to the 350.6 million equities transacted the previous session in 3,973 deals valued at N5.1 billion.
A breakdown showed that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 237.2 million shares exchanged for N1.5 billion and was followed by the Oil and Gas industry, which sold 11.4 million equities traded for N86 million.
African Alliance Insurance led the activity chart with a total of 90 million shares transacted for N18.7 million.
It was followed by Fidelity Bank, which sold 21.9 million equities for N49 million, and Diamond Bank, which traded 20.5 million valued at N33.2 million.
GTBank exchanged 15.2 million shares worth N664.9 million, while Access Bank traded 11.5 million equities at N123.6 million.
A look at the price movement chart showed that Flour Mills led the losers’ chart, losing 95k to close at N34 per share.
It was trailed by GTBank, which went down by 50k to finish at N43.50k per share, and Stanbic IBTC, which declined by 45k to end at N48.50k per share.
FBN Holdings lost 30k to settle at N10.75k per share, while Oando depreciated by 25k to finish at N8 per share.
On the flip side, Forte Oil topped the gainers’ table with N1.90k added to its share value to close at N40.65k per share.
It was followed by Nigerian Breweries, which gained 50k to close at N123.70k per share, and Unilever Nigeria, which also appreciated by 50k to finish at N50.50k per share.
Ecobank increased by 40k to close at N21 per share, while UAC of Nigeria advanced by 35k to end at N15.85k per share.
