Equities Trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday nosedived as the All Share Index (ASI) and the Market Capitalisation dropped by 0.34 percent to close the day at 36,652.82 points and N12.617 trillion respectively.
The All Share Index fell 123.8 points compared to a decline of 55.33 points recorded in the previous session while the market capitalisation fell by N42.6 billion as against a depreciation of N19.04 billion recorded on Tuesday.
The sectoral performance showed 3 out of 5 major sectoral indices closed on a positive note. The NSE Industrial, Insurance and Oil&Gas indices appreciated 0.15, 2.35 and 0.63 percent respectively, However, a decline of 1.08 per cent and 0.15 percent recorded in the NSE Consumer goods and banking indices contributed significantly to the 0.34 per cent decline recorded in the ASI on Wednesday.
Market breadth stayed flat as 19 gainers remained paired against 19 losers.
Vitafoam led the loser’s chart with a decline of 5 percent to close at N2.66 per share. Law Union and Rocks came next with a decline of 4.71 percent to close at 81 kobo and University Press Limited (UPL) depreciated 4.67 percent to close at N2.45 per share.
On the other hand AXA Mansard topped the gainer’s chart with a growth of 10 percent to close at N2.31 per share, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria added 9.23 percent to close the day at N10.18 and Linkage Assurance appreciated 6.67 percent to close at 80 kobo per share.
NSE market moves 500.29m shares worth N3.62b
Meanwhile, turnover dropped 5 per cent as investors in 3,689 deals exchange a total of 336.4 million shares worth N1.834 billion. This is in comparison 353.2 million units of shares valued at N3.255 billion exchanged by investors in 4,201 deals previously.
Diamond Bank emerged the most active stock to boost turnover for the fourth consecutive session as it exchanged 230.6 million shares for N230.2 million. Skye Bank was next with the sale of 13.4 million shares valued at N6.8 million and Zenith Bank sold 10.5 million units at N265.8 million.
Fidelity came fourth with 9.7 million units exchanged for N13.4 million while 9.1 million units of FBN Holdings were exchanged for N55.5 million.`