By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian bourse ended its trading transactions on Tuesday on a negative note as a result of the 0.32 percent depreciation it suffered in the hands of profit takers.
The loss recorded yesterday was the second in the week as some investors continue to capitalize on the gains posted by the market in the last three trading sessions of last week to sell off.
Their actions consequently reduced the All-Share Index (ASI) on Tuesday by 89.08 points to finish at 27,602.77 points, while the market capitalization went down by N43.3 billion to close at N13.429 trillion.
In addition, the profit taking activity left the market breadth negative with 23 price losers and 13 price gainers.
Like in the previous session, Seplat maintained its position as the highest price decliner after shedding N43.30k of its share value to close at N397.70k per unit.
Total Nigeria lost N9.30k to finish at N96.50k per share, Dangote Cement depreciated by N2 to end at N165 per unit, GTBank declined by 85 kobo to settle at N27.15k per share, while International Breweries fell by 75 kobo to close at N9.75k per unit.
At the other end, Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ chart with N8 added to its share value to settle at N1240 per share, while MTN Nigeria improved its value by N2.05k to end at N140.05k per share.
CCNN gained 50 kobo to finish at N14.50k per share, PZ Cussons appreciated by 35 kobo to close at N6.25k per unit, while Zenith Bank increased by 30 kobo to settle at N19 per unit.
Business Post reports that despite the market closing negative yesterday, the activity level was positive, with the volume of shares traded rising by 16.04 percent to 183.7 million from 158.3 million, while the value of the transactions significantly grew by 94.11 percent to N4.5 billion from N2.3 billion.
This was boosted by the continued huge transactions seen around Transcorp, which sold 29.7 million units of its shares worth N31.7 million on Tuesday.
GTBank traded 25.2 million equities for N692.3 million, Access Bank exchanged 19.2 million shares valued at N128.5 million, MTN Nigeria transacted 17.0 million equities for N2.4 billion, while FBN Holdings traded 15.6 million shares for N78.1 million.
