By Modupe Gbadeyanka
For the second straight session, transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended in the red territory on Tuesday amid cash crunch in the system.
The market capitalisation of listed equities on the local bourse depreciated yesterday by N120 billion to settle at N11.677 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 323.30 points to finish at 31,313.36 points.
At the close activities on the nation’s stock exchange, the market ended 1.02 percent lower to leave the year-to-date loss at 0.37 percent.
Despite the market closing bearish yesterday, the level of activity improved significantly with the volume and value of shares transacted by investors appreciating by 70.85 percent and 22.68 percent respectively.
Investors traded 219.4 million shares worth N2.9 billion on Tuesday against the 128.4 million equities worth N2.4 billion transacted on Monday.
Like in the previous session, the banking sector dragged the market to the negative region after losing 2.26 percent. The Insurance index dropped 0.51 percent, the consumer goods sector declined by 1.30 percent, the oil & gas index reduced by 0.37 percent, while the industrial index remained flat.
FBN Holdings emerged as the most active stock yesterday, exchanging 60.14 million shares valued at N493.12 million.
Following closely was Zenith Bank, which recorded 46.46 million shares worth N1.05 billion, while Diamond Bank transacted 14.47 million equities for N35.32 million.
Furthermore, Access Bank sold 11.45 million shares valued at N68.46 million, while UBA exchanged 8.53 million equities for N64.66 million.
On the price movement chart, Mobil Oil Nigeria led the losers’ chart with N5.10k of its share value lost to settle at N165 per share.
It was trailed by International Breweries, which shed N2.65k to end at N24.05k per share, and GTBank, which depreciated by N1.80k to finish at N35.50k per unit.
NASCON lost N1 to close at N20.70k per share, while Dangote Cement also went down by N1 to settle at N194 per share.
On the flip side, Lafarge Africa topped the gainers’ table after adding 50 kobo to its share price to finish at N13 per share.
United Capital rose by 13 kobo to end at N3.28k per unit, while UAC Property also garnered 13 kobo to finish at N1.95 per share.
Africa Prudential appreciated by 12 kobo to close at N4.92k per share, while Union Bank improved by 10 kobo to end at N7 per share.
