By Dipo Olowookere
The All-Share Index (ASI) remained down on Thursday at the close of transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Business Post is reporting.
This was caused by profit taking activities embarked upon by investors as they wait patiently for the release of half-year performance of firms listed on the stock exchange.
When market closed yesterday, the index went down by 230.49 points or 0.61 percent, while the market capitalisation depleted further by N83 billion to settle at 13.669 trillion.
Despite the weak performance of the stock market, which pushed the year-to-date gain to -1.33 percent, the volume and value of transactions appreciated yesterday.
Business Post reports that while the volume of trades went up by 11.47 percent, the value appreciated by 39.99 percent.
This showed that the volume of shares transacted on Thursday moved to 414.9 million from 372.2 million on Wednesday, while the total value of equities bought and sold by investors grew from N3.2 billion to N4.5 billion.
A breakdown of the trades showed that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 210.4 million shares exchanged for N2.2 billion, while the Consumer Goods industry followed with 166.7 million equities exchanged for N1.1 billion.
The highest price loser at the stock market yesterday was Dangote Cement, which lost N5 to close at N225 per share.
It was followed by Okomu Oil, which went down by N2.50k to settle at N90 per share, and GTBank, which fell by 65 kobo to finish at N40.05k per share.
Dangote Flour declined by N25 kobo to end at N10 per share, while FBN Holdings shed 15 kobo to close at N10.70k per share.
At the other side, Lafarge showed an impressive performance, wrapping up the day with a N2 gain to finish at N42 per share.
It was trailed by Unilever Nigeria, which added N1.25k to its share value to close at N52.25k per share, and Flour Mills of Nigeria, which grew by N1.15k to end at N32.20k per share.
Nestle Nigeria went up by N1.10k on Thursday to settle at N1501.10k per share, while Nigerian Breweries rose by 60 kobo to finish at N111 per share.
It is most certain that the market will close bearish this week except there is a huge gain recorded today to write off the losses recorded during the week.
