By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Heavy losses recorded on Friday by Okomu Oil, International Breweries and 26 other equities on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) left the market down by 0.59 percent.
Business Post reports that profit-taking activities by investors at the equity market contributed to the decline, which sank the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns deeper to -4.56 percent.
Okomu Oil, which led the losers’ table on Friday, went down by N5 at the close of business to finish at N76 per share.
International Breweries, which followed, lost N2.90k to settle at N30.50k per share, while Forte Oil depreciated by N1.10k to end at N23.40k per share.
Dangote Cement went down by N1 to close at N229 per share, while Cadbury Nigeria fell by 95 kobo to finish at N9.75k per share.
On the flip side, it was a better trading day for Beta Glass as its shares appreciated on Friday by N7.80k to settle at N85.80k per share.
Seplat recorded a gain of N6 to close at N710 per share, while Nigerian Breweries grew by N3 to finish at N103 per share.
Redstar Express increased by 30 kobo to close at N5.75k per share, while Zenith Bank appreciated by 20 kobo to end at N23.85k per share.
At the close of transactions on Friday, the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 150.4 million shares sold for N1.1 billion, while the Services sector followed with 66.9 million shares traded for N254 million.
A further breakdown showed that shares of NAHCO were the most traded yesterday with a total of 59.6 million units sold for N235.4 million.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) followed with 29.4 million shares traded for N282.9 million, with Diamond Bank transacting 20.2 million shares worth N24.7 million.
FBN Holdings exchanged 17.3 million equities valued at N172.9 million, while Niger Insurance traded 15.4 million shares worth N4.6 million.
At the end of the day, the volume of shares transacted by investors depreciated by 16.87 percent, while the value appreciated by 20.47 percent.
A total of 266.4 million equities worth N4.3 billion were bought and sold on Friday compared with the 320.5 million shares valued at N3.5 billion traded on Thursday.
A look at the major market indices showed that All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 189.24 points to close at 36,499.67 points, while the market capitalisation lost N70 billion to settle at N13.322 trillion.
