By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Friday’s trading bearish despite the rise in the volume and value transactions recorded.
Losses recorded by some blue-chip stocks put the market underwater again by 0.68 percent, leaving the year-to-date returns to -8.88 percent.
Business Post observed that there was a 35.24 percent improvement in the volume of equities traded at the market yesterday just as the value of shares exchanged rose by 184.21 percent.
A total of 385 million equities worth N9.8 billion exchanged hands at the market on Friday compared with the 284.7 million units transacted on Thursday valued at N3.4 billion.
But when the market closed for the day, a total of 22 stocks recorded losses, while 18 equities appreciated in value.
Total Nigeria in the oil and gas sector claimed the number one spot on the losers’ log after going down by N2.30k to close at N189.70k per share.
It was closely followed by Nigerian Breweries, which lost N2.10k to finish at N97.90k per share, and GTBank, which crashed by N2 to end at N36 per share.
GlaxoSmithKline dropped 90 kobo of its share value to settle at N13.10k per share, while Zenith Bank declined by 65 kobo to finish at N21 per share.
However, Okomu Oil put up a good performance at the market yesterday, emerging the highest price gainer after gaining N5.75k to close at N76.95k per share.
Flour Mills grew by N1.30 to finish at N24.30k per share, while Stanbic IBTC went up by 75 kobo to settle at N48 per share.
Newrest ASL Nigeria appreciated by 50 kobo to settle at N5.50k per share, while Eterna also rose by 50 kobo to end at N6.70k per share.
Shares of Diamond Bank dominated trading on Friday, transacting a total of 102.8 million units worth N124.5 million.
Zenith Bank followed with 47.8 million units of its stock sold for N997.2 million, while GTBank exchanged 36.4 million units valued at N1.3 billion.
Dangote Cement exchanged 25.3 million equities worth N5.3 billion, while Stanbic IBTC transacted 19.9 million shares for N953.1 million.
A look at the major market indices showed that the All-Share Index (ASI) slipped to the 34,000 mark on Friday after shedding 238.22 points to close at 34,848.45 points, its lowest in two weeks, while the market capitalisation reduced by N86 billion to settle at N12.722 trillion.
