Equities trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended on a decline of 0.28 percent today as a result of profit taking in high capitalized stocks.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange’ All Share Index (NSEASI) closed at 25,671.23 in contrast to 25,743.03 points, recorded after Monday’s session, consequent on a marginal decline of 0.88 percent in the NSE Premium Index, following a 1.15 percent and 0.35 percent depreciation recorded in Dangote Cement and Zenith Bank respectively.
Other sector indices trended north wards except the NSE 30 index, Consumer Goods Index and Industrial Goods Index that dropped 0.11, 0.8 and 0.63 percent respectively.
As a result, investors lost N24.7 billion as market capitalization closed at N8.831 trillion in contrast to N8.855 trillion recorded after Monday’s session.
Diamond Bank led the day’s retreating stocks, with a 5.49 percent decline to close at 86 kobo per share, Guinness Nigeria lost 4.99 percent to close at N76.32 per share and Caverton 4.26 percent to close at 90 kobo per share.
Sterling Bank depreciated 4.11 percent to close at 70 kobo per share, and Wema Bank fell 3.64 percent to close at 53 kobo per share.
However, Oil and Gas Stocks sustained growth with a 2.8 percent appreciation as Total and Forte Oil led the day’s gainers with a growth of 10.24 and 10.23 percent to close at N304.44 and N79.30 per share respectively.
Other top gainers in the course of Tuesday’s transactions were Portland Paints that added 9.47 percent to close at N2.08 per share, Transcorp grew by 7.89 percent to close at 82 kobo per share and Nascon Allied Industries improved by 4.51 percent to close at N6.95 per share.
Conversely, Diamond Bank emerged the most traded stock with 66.6 million shares valued at N57.8 million, FCMB followed with 26.2 million units of shares worth N26.2 million while Guaranty Trust Bank came third with the sale of 13.9 million shares worth N320.4 million.
FBN Holdings traded 13.4 million shares worth N44.4 million and NEM sold approximately 12.4 million shares at N8.8 million.
Overall, investors traded in 2,894 deals, a total of 189.4 million units of shares valued at N2.5 billion compared to 175.1 million units of shares valued at N3.1 billion traded in 3048 deals on Monday.