Nigerian bourse down N51bn to profit taking by investors

The bearish trend continued on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday for the third consecutive day, with the market capitalisation losing N51 billion.

Consequently, the market capitalisation of listed equities which opened at N13.257 trillion shed N51 billion to close at N13.206 trillion even as the All-Share Index lost 105.52 points or 0.39 per cent to close at 27,146.57 points from 27,252.09 reported on Thursday.

Specifically, Nestle topped the losers’ chart for the day trading transactions as it shed N45 to close at N1,205 per share.

Dangote Cement came second with a loss of N2 to close at N155.70, while GlaxoSmithKline was down by 75k to close at N7.15 per share.

Ecobank Transnational declined by 55k to close at N7.15, while Forte Oil also lost 55k to close at N14.50 per share.

On the other hand, Dangote Flour led the gainers’ table with N1 price appreciation to close at N21 per share.

Zenith Bank followed with a gain of 65k to close at N18, while UACN garnered 55k to close at N6.05 per share.

Access Bank added 45k to close at N6.90, while Custodian and Allied advanced by 40k to close at N6.20 per share.

In spite of the drop in market indicators, the volume of shares traded rose by 133.43 per cent as investors bought and sold 311.26 million shares worth N6.44 billion in 3,192 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 133.34 million shares valued at N2.39 billion achieved in 2,561 deals on Thursday.

Guaranty Trust Bank was investors delight, accounting for 129.26 million shares valued at N3.40 billion.

Access Bank followed with an exchange of 59.58 million shares valued at N403.87 million, while Zenith Bank sold a total of 31.36 million shares worth N546.25 million.

FBN Holding traded 15.25 million shares valued at N66.99 million, while UBA traded 14.55 million shares worth N88.82 million.