By Dipo Olowookere
The All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) returned to the 23,000.00 psychological mark on Monday, following activities of profit takers.
The booking of profit on banking, insurance and industrial goods stocks pull down the market by 0.39 percent yesterday, expanding the year-to-date loss to 10.77 percent.
At the close of transactions, the benchmark index reduced by 94.57 points to 23,950.83 points from 24,045.40 points.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation decreased by N49 billion to N12.482 trillion from N12.531 trillion.
As earlier stated, the loss recorded on Monday, the second in a roll, was mainly influenced by the depression in the banking equities, whose index fell by 2.76 percent.
The insurance counter declined by 0.24 percent, while the industrial goods space depreciated by 0.08 percent.
However, the oil/gas index appreciated yesterday by 0.93 percent, while the consumer goods sector improved by 0.33 percent.
Business Post reports that despite the loss on Monday, the market breadth ended positive with 14 price gainers and 12 price losers.
CAP was the heaviest price loser, going down by N2.25 to sell at N20.65 per share, while GTBank depreciated by 95 kobo to trade at N21 per unit.
Furthermore, Union Bank lost 60 kobo to quote at N6.40 per share, Zenith Bank declined by 35 kobo to settle at N15.05 per unit, while Honeywell Flour crashed by 9 kobo to trade at 98 kobo per share.
Conversely, Unilever Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart yesterday after adding N1.05 to its share price to settle at N11.55 per share.
Ardova maintained its uptrend with a price appreciation of 70 kobo to sell at N16 per unit, C&I Leasing improved its value by 30 kobo to N4.80 per unit, Eterna gained 17 kobo 17 kobo to quote at N2.33 per share, while Oando sucked 15 kobo to swell to N2.80 per share.
On the activity level, the volume and value of shares traded by market participants on Monday by 0.64 percent and 19.03 percent respectively, while the number of deals increased by 3.24 percent.
A total of 207.2 million stocks worth N1.8 billion were transacted on Monday in 4,460 deals compared with the 208.6 million equities valued at N2.2 billion exchanged in 4,320 deals last Friday.
FBN Holdings was the most active stock, trading 44.1 million units worth N207.6 million, while GTBank exchanged 27.7 million units valued at N585.0 million.
Regency Alliance transacted 20.7 million equities for N4.1 million, AIICO Insurance sold 14.5 million shares worth N13.3 million, while Zenith Bank traded 12.3 million stocks valued at N185.3 million.
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