NSE: Trading opens for the week on a bearish note

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened for the week on Monday on a bearish note as transactions dropped both in value and volume terms. The value of shares traded dropped by 35.47 per cent while the volume of shares declined by 63.95 per cent.

A total of 219.704 million shares valued at N2.411 billion were traded in 4,091 deals. This is against the 609.579 million shares worth N3.74 billion traded in 4,033 deals on Friday. The market indicators dropped by 0.74 per cent as a result of profit taking.

However, market capitalisation declined by N91 billion to close at N12.170 trillion, against the N12.261 trillion posted on Friday following price losses. Similarly, the All-Share Index, which opened at 38,171.32, lost 282.85 points or 0.74 per cent to close at 37,888.47. Total recorded the highest price loss, shedding N7.02 to close at N159.03 per share.

Forte Oil trailed with a loss of N5.20 to close at N98.80, while Unilever dipped by N2.35 to close at N44.65 per share. Dangote Cement dropped N1.10 to close at N233.60, while GT Bank dropped by N1.03 to close at N22.67 per share. Conversely, Flour Mill led the gainers’ chart, advancing by N1.695 to close at N77.95 per share. Stanbic IBTC Bank followed with a gain of 85k to close at N20.35, while Access Bank gained 19k to close at N7.70 per share.

Nascon rose by 14k to close at N12.49, while Eterna grew by 5k to close at N3.85 per share. The banking stocks remained the toast of investors as Diamond Bank emerged the most-traded equity with 35.54 million shares valued at N230.65 million. FBN Holdings came second on the activity chart, accounting for 35.02 million shares worth N408.46 million. Transcorp sold 17.08 million shares valued at N66.04 million, while Zenith Bank traded 16.04 million shares worth N336.96 million.