By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) wrapped up trading for the week in the red territory a day after it recorded a marginal gain.
Investors allowed profit taking tendency to take over market sentiments, leaving the NSE to plunge into a 0.07 percent loss on a day the market breadth remained positive with 19 stocks closing higher in contrast to 17 that declined.
The market capitalisation depreciated today by N6.05 billion to close at N8.829 billion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 17.48 points to finish at 25,516.34 points with the year-to-date return ending at -5.05 percent.
Nigerian Breweries topped the losers’ chart at the close of trading activities after depreciating by N4 to finish at N127 per share.
It was closely followed by GlaxoSmithKline, which fell by 48k to end at N14 per share and GTBank, which declined by 45k to close at N24.90k per share.
Stanbic IBTC lost 22k to end at N17.78k per share, while Seplat contracted by 10k to finish at N396 per share.
On the flip side, Lafarge emerged the market’s highest gainer with an addition of N3.99k to close at N42.99k per share.
Beta Glass gained N2.10k to finish at N44.28k per share, while Okomu Oil advanced by N2 to end at N50 per share.
Unilever progressed by N1.51k to close at N35 per share and Guinness appreciated by 51k to wrap up the day at N60.51k per share.
The volume of shares transacted on the floor of the NSE on Friday increased with investors staking N94 billion on 594 million shares in 3,159 deals in contrast to N2.5 billion spent on 352 million shares yesterday executed in 2,438 deals.
The high value of trades today was influenced by the volume of shares of Mobil traded at the market today.
Mobil led the activity chart after exchanging 216.5 million shares worth N90.3 billion, while Staco trailed with a total of 100 million shares traded at N50 million.
Zenith Bank sold 69.13 million shares valued at 971 million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 41.8 million shares worth N33.4 million.
Adedapo Adesanya