By Dipo Olowookere
The market size of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) went down below N13 trillion on Friday following the N56 billion loss recorded at the trading session.
At the close of transactions, the market capitalisation depreciated to N12.951 trillion from the N13.007 trillion it closed the preceding day.
Equally, at the session, following the 0.44 percent decline printed by the stock market, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 106.66 points to close at 24,826.75 points from 24,933.41 points.
Business Post reports that the market was not busy last Friday as reflected in the activity chart, which showed lesser trades.
A total of 165.5 million stocks worth N2.0 billion were transacted in 3,634 deals compared with the previous day’s 171.2 million equities valued at N2.2 billion traded in 3,315 deals the previous session.
This showed that while the number of deals increased by 9.62 percent, the volume and value of shares traded by market participants depreciated by 3.32 percent and 11.95 percent respectively.
According to data from the exchange, Mutual Benefits Assurance was the most active stock on Friday. The insurance firm traded 26.6 million units of its securities worth N5.6 million.
Zenith Bank exchanged 12.7 million units valued at N205.7 million, GTBank transacted 12.1 equities for N279.8 million, UBA transacted 11.3 million shares worth N72.1 million, while FBN Holdings traded 9.9 million stocks for N52.1 million.
A total of 21 equities closed in the red territory at the session as against the 13 equities in the green zone at the end of market activities.
Dangote Cement was the heaviest price loser of the day as its share price fell by N9 to settle at N130 per unit.
Okomu Oil suffered N3 loss to close at N64 per share, Guinness Nigeria depreciated by 50 kobo to sell at N17 per unit, Custodian Investment declined by 20 kobo to trade at N5.80 per unit, while UAC Nigeria also depleted by 20 kobo to quote at N7 per share.
On the other hand, BUA Cement was the day’s biggest price riser, appreciating by N2.60 to finish the session at N44 per unit.
Total Nigeria grew by N1.40 to close at N97.50 per share, MTN Nigeria improved by 60 kobo to end at N116.10 per unit, Lafarge Africa gained 20 kobo to sell at N11.20 per share, while FBN Holdings increased by 20 kobo to N5.30 per unit.
When market activities were wrapped up last Friday, of the five key sectors of the market, only the industrial goods index closed positive with an appreciation of 2.67 percent.
The banking space lost 0.22 percent, the consumer goods depleted by 0.21 percent, the insurance sector declined by 0.14 percent, while the energy counter went down by 0.05 percent.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka