Nigerian bourse opens the week with N181bn loss

Activities on the nation’s bourse opened for the week on Monday still on a negative outlook with the market capitalisation shedding N181 billion.

Specifically, the market capitalisation following free fall of stocks, lost N181 billion or 1.27 per cent to close at N14.087 trillion against N14.268 trillion on Friday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index dipped 347.59 points or 1.27 per cent to close at 27,041.03 compared with 27,388.62 achieved on Friday.

A breakdown of the price movement chart indicated that five stocks posted gains against 32 losers.

Julius Berger dominated the laggards’ table with a loss of N1.60 to close at N22.40 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with N1.45 to close at N47, while Guaranty Trust Bank was down by N1.05 to close at N26.90 per share.

Cadbury dropped 90k to close at N8.20, while Zenith Bank declined by 76k to close at N19.10 per share.

On the other hand, Law Union and Rock Insurance led the gainers’ table, appreciating by 7k to close at 80k per share.

May and Baker garnered 5k to close at N1.87, while Sterling Bank gained 4k to close at N1.50 per share.

Linkage Insurance improved by 2k to close at 45k, while Vitafoam added 1k to close N4.51 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank drove the activity chart, accounting for 177.13 million shares valued N4.79 billion.

FBN Holdings followed with an exchange of 60.09 million shares worth N329.48 million, while Zenith Bank traded 56.15 million shares valued N1.09 billion.

United Bank for Africa sold 39.17 million shares worth N267.21 million, while United Capital Plc sold 18.48 million shares valued N62.99 million.

However, the volume of shares transacted dipped 11.54 per cent as investors bought and sold 429 million shares valued N7.29 billion in 4.533 deals.

This was against a turnover of 421.28 million shares worth N5.55 billion traded in 4,423 deals on Friday. (NAN)