By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading day on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) after the Easter holiday turned bearish.
This followed the 0.03 percent loss recorded by the local stock market, which put a halt to the bullish sessions of last week.
It was observed that losses printed by stocks in the consumer goods, banking and insurance sectors plunged the market into the negative region.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 10.31 points to settle at 30,076.00 points, but the market capitalisation rose by 2.4 billion to finish at N11.303 trillion.
During the day’s session, the financial services sector led the activity chart with 170.4 million equities sold for N1.7 billion, while the oil and gas industry followed with 71.4 million shares exchanged for N154 million.
In the end, the total volume of shares transacted by investors increased by 39.27 percent from 227 million units to 316.1 million units, while the value rose by 109.63 percent from N1.7 billion to N3.7 billion.
There were huge transactions witnessed around Japaul as the stock emerged the most traded with 69.1 million units sold for N14.1 million.
Unilever Nigeria sold 41.2 million shares worth N1.3 billion, while Sterling Bank exchanged 38.9 million equities valued at N104.9 million.
UBA traded 34.3 million shares for N234.5 million, while Access Bank transacted 24.9 million units worth N171 million.
On the price movement chart, Guinness Nigeria emerged the worst performing stock, shedding N6 to close at N54 per unit.
Unilever Nigeria lost N3 to settle at N31 per share, while Forte Oil depreciated by N2.65k to finish at N24.30k per share.
Nigerian Breweries lost N1 to close at N64 per share, while GTBank went down by 70 kobo to settle at N34.10k per share.
At the other side, Mobil Oil Nigeria led the gainers’ table after adding N4.90k to its share price to quote at N179.90k per unit.
Dangote Cement grew by N2 to end at N191 per share, while Dangote Flour gained N1.05k on the back of news that Olam was offering N130 billion to acquire the company, leaving the stock to end at N11.75k per share.
FBN Holdings rose by 35 kobo to quote at N8 per share, while Vitafoam appreciated by 34 kobo to settle at N3.84k per share.
