By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained its bearish position on Thursday as the market closed marginally lower by 0.02 percent yesterday despite finishing with 25 price gainers and 14 price losers.
On Wednesday, Chairman of Forte Oil Plc, Mr Femi Otedola, announced the completion of the sale of his 75 percent stake in the company so as to focus on his electricity business.
This information saw the stock price lowering by N3.45k yesterday to close at N31.20k per share, making the counter the highest price decliner.
MTN Nigeria lost N2 to end at N130 per share, C&I Leasing depreciated by 63 kobo to settle at N5.67k per unit, Stanbic IBTC went down by 40 kobo to quote at N41.50k per share, while Zenith Bank lost 20 kobo to end at N20 per unit.
Conversely, Julius Berger emerged as the highest price gainer yesterday after recording a price appreciation of N1.40k to end at N20.90k per share.
It was followed by Lafarge Africa, which grew by 95 kobo to end at N10.50k per share, and Nigerian Breweries, which appreciated by 50 kobo to close at N57.50k per unit.
Dangote Sugar went up by 45 kobo to close at N12.45k per share, while GTBank added 25 kobo to its share value to finish at N31.25k per share.
Looking at the level activity, which was low on Thursday, the volume and value of shares transacted by investors declined by 77.67 percent and 94.25 percent respectively.
While the volume of traded equities went down to 275.5 million units from 1.2 billion units, the value dropped to N3.9 billion from N67.9 billion.
At the market yesterday, Sterling Bank closed as the most active stock, selling 55 million shares worth N131.9 million.
Lafarge Africa transacted 32.4 million equities valued at N340.6 million, while Access Bank exchanged 26.9 million shares for N185.1 million.
GTBank sold 25.9 million equities worth N801.3 million, while Zenith Bank traded 19.9 million shares valued at N398.9 million.
For the major market indicators, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 7.41 percent to settle at 29,765.31 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N3 billion to close at N13.117 trillion.
