Stock market nose dive

Trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday nose dived with market indices dropping by 1.04 per cent, amid sell pressure. As a result the All-Share Index lost 303.34 points or 1.04 per cent to close at 29,002.06 compared with 29,305.40 posted on Friday.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N10.064 trillion shed N104 billion to close at N9.960 trillion.

A breakdown of the price movement showed that Forte Oil topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N9.51 to close at N180.83 per share. Total Nigeria Plc trailed with a loss of N8.52 to close at N181.48, while Guinness shed N5.47 to close at N99.50 per share.

Lafarge Africa dropped by N3 to close at N67 and Nigerian Breweries lost N1.10 to close at N130 per share. Conversely, Oando led the gainers’ table, growing by 68k to close at N7.37 per share.

Ven Leer followed with a gain of 46k to close at N9.69, while Redstar appreciated by 21k to close at N4.51 per share. Continental Reinsurance increased by 5k to close at N1.15 and NPF Micro Finance Bank also surged by 5k to close at N1.25 per share.

NAN also reports that FBN Holdings emerged the most traded stock, exchanging 21.79 million shares worth N83.12 million. It was trailed by Zenith International Bank with 12.51 million shares valued at N189.69 million, while Access Bank sold 11.69 million shares worth N66.19 million.

Skye Bank transacted 10.83 million shares valued at N10.39 million and UBA sold 9.37 million shares worth N42.84 million. In all, investors bought and sold 142.84 million shares valued at N1.35 billion achieved in 3,321 deals. This was in contrast with 189.74 million shares worth N2.23 billion transacted in 3,486 deals on Friday.