By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session of the week started weak on Monday as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 0.91 percent.
Selloffs across most sectors of the market contributed to the bearish closure yesterday, expanding the year-to-date loss to 7.03 percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 228.42 points to 24,954.25 points from 25,182.67 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N119 billion to N13.018 trillion from N13.137 trillion.
There were 25 price losers during Monday’s trading day as against the 16 price gainers, with MTN Nigeria topping the losers’ chart after a price depreciation of N2 to close at N116 per unit.
BUA Cement lost 75 kobo to sell at N40.75 per share, Zenith Bank fell by 45 kobo to trade at N16.20 per unit, Ecobank declined by 40 kobo to quote at N5.05 per unit, while GlaxoSmithKline drowned by 40 kobo to N7.10 per share.
Conversely, Red Star Express was the biggest price riser yesterday, appreciating by 33 kobo to finish at N3.63 per share.
Fidson gained 30 kobo to trade at N3.30 per share, Union Bank grew by 25 kobo to N6.40 per unit, Axa Mansard improved by 15 kobo to settle at N2 per share, while May & Baker gained 11 kobo to sell at N3.16 per unit.
A total of 237.7 million stocks worth N1.6 billion were traded in 4,808 deals on Monday compared with the 337.1 million equities worth N3.4 billion transacted in 3,880 deals last Friday.
This indicated a 29.51 percent and 52.74 percent decrease in the volume and value of shares respectively and a 23.92 percent increase in the number of deals yesterday.
FBN Holdings was the most attractive to investors, trading 24.4 million shares worth N128.8 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 24.1 million equities valued at N392.4 million.
FCMB traded 19.5 million stocks valued at N33.5 million, Caverton exchanged 17.4 million shares for N39.0 million, while UBA traded 14.6 million equities for N95.7 million.
Only the insurance sector closed green on Monday, appreciating by 0.88 percent, while the other four sectors finished in red.
The banking index lost 1.93 percent, the industrial goods counter decreased by 1.44 percent, the oil/gas space fell by 0.33 percent, while the consumer goods counter decreased by 0.03 percent.
