NSE market capitalisation drops by N41bn in bearish trading

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday ended on a bearish trend with the market capitalisation dropping by N41 billion due to price losses by some highly capitalised equities. The market capitalisation declined by 0.32 per cent to close at N12.430 trillion compared with N12.471 trillion recorded on Wednesday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index lost 125.36 basis points or 0.32 per cent to close at 38,864.84 against 38,990.20 basis points achieved on Wednesday. Nigerian Breweries recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers’ pack, losing N4 to close at N164 per share.
Presco came second on the losers’ chart with N1.17 to close at N37.20, while GT Bank dipped 31k to close at N27 per share. FBN Holdings and Eterna Oil lost 23k each to close at N16.28 and N4.39 per share respectively. On the other hand, the International Breweries led the gainers’ chart, gaining N1.13 to close at N23.88 per share.
Cadbury increased by 81k to close at N62.30, while Union Dicon Salt gained 57k to close at N6.20 per share. Dangote Cement rose by 50k to close at N195.50, while Ashaka Cement improved by 40k to close at N20.90 per share.
In all, investors staked N3.73 billion on 484.64 billion shares transacted in 5,877 deals, indicating a decrease of 27.84 per cent. This is against a total of 671.59 million shares worth N6.13 billion traded in 5,716 deals on Wednesday. Unity Bank emerged the most traded equity, accounting for 107.59 million shares valued N57.84 million.
It was followed by Transcorp with an exchange of 102.65 million shares worth N464.15 million, while UBA Capital sold 23.53 million shares valued N34.98 million. Zenith Bank accounted for 19.54 million shares worth N413.48 million, while Oando recorded a turnover of 19.22 million shares valued N309.15 million.