By Dipo Olowookere
Activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remained bearish on Wednesday despite the market breadth closing positive with 13 price gainers and 11 price losers.
Business Post reports that the stock market depreciated by 0.16 percent at the session to expand the year-to-date loss to 15.78 percent.
The All Share Index (ASI) went down by 41.45 points to settle at 26,472.20 points against 26,513.65 points of the previous session, while the market capitalisation N20.2 billion to close at N12.887 trillion in contrast to N12.907 trillion it ended in the previous session.
Topping the losers’ chart was Stanbic IBTC as its share price went down by 80 kobo to close at N36.25 per share, while Lafarge Africa followed with a loss of 65 kobo to finish at N15.35 per share.
MTN Nigeria depreciated by 50 kobo to settle at N128.50 per unit, Ecobank fell by 20 kobo to end at N7 per share, while Sterling Bank declined by 15 kobo to trade at N1.80 per unit.
At the other end, Nestle Nigeria dominated the gainers’ table after its share price rose by N4.90 to close at N1220 per unit, while Dangote Flour increased its share value by 75 kobo to end at N23.20 per unit.
GTBank, which released its Q3 financials on the day, gained 35 kobo to finish at N27 per share, Africa Prudential rose by 10 kobo to trade at N4 per share, while Nigerian Breweries gained 5 kobo to close at N46.05 per unit.
The level of activity remained mixed at the midweek trading day with the volume of trades going down by 20.61 percent and the value of the transactions rising by 55.52 percent and the number of deals going up by 0.12 percent.
At the close of business, investors traded a total of 138.5 million shares worth N3.6 billion in 2,487 deals compared with the 174.4 million equities worth N2.3 billion exchanged on Tuesday in 2,484 deals.
Access Bank was the most active stock at the session, trading 20.7 million units worth N153.4 million, with Global Spectrum Energy Services trailing with 20.0 million units valued at N94.1 million.
Zenith Bank traded 14.9 million shares valued at N266.4 million, Transcorp sold 14.4 million equities for N14.6 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 10.9 million shares worth N58.3 million.
Business Post reports that the banking and the consumer goods sectors appreciated during Wednesday’s trading day by 0.07 percent and 0.22 percent respectively.
However, the insurance sector went down by 0.21 percent, the energy sector fell by 0.29 percent, while the industrial goods sector depreciated by 1.01 percent.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka