By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The first trading day of this week commenced on a negative note on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as a result of profit-taking in the financial services sector.
At the close of trading activities on Monday, the local bourse went down by 0.88 percent, extending the bearish run to the second trading day, shrinking the Year-to-Date (YtD) further to 44.80 percent.
Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 343.54 points to settle at 38,913.99 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N119.6 million to close at N13.6 trillion.
Business Post reports that the market breadth ended negative today with the market recording 14 price gainers and 28 price losers.
The day’s gainers’ chart was led by Mobil with 9.47 percent share price appreciation, followed by NASCON by 4.99 percent, Neimeth by 4.35 percent and Nestle by 3.54 percent.
On the losing front, UBA came out bottom with an end-of-day price depreciation of 5 percent, followed by Learn Africa, which fell by 5 percent; C &I Leasing, which went down by 4.86 percent; and Eterna, which slumped by 4.83 percent.
FBN Holdings recorded the highest volume of 61.3 million traded shares, followed by Zenith Bank, 35.32 million shares; Diamond Bank, 34.08 million shares; and Transcorp, 30.33 million.
Today, a total of 350.6 million shares worth N 4.9 billion were transacted by investors compared with 530 million shares valued at N5.1 billion traded last Friday.
Dipo Olowookere 
Adedapo Adesanya