The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market capitalisation on Thursday shed N167 billion in spite of interim dividends declared by some banks for the first six months ended June 30, 2017.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation lost N167 billion or 1.31 per cent to close at N12.606 trillion against N12.773 trillion on Wednesday.
Also, the All-Share Index, which opened at 37,059.21, dipped by 483.35 points or 1.03 per cent to close at 36,575.86 due to huge price depreciation by some blue chips, especially oil and gas stocks.
Total topped the losers’ chart for the day with a loss of N11.20 to close at N216.80 per share.
Mobil Oil trailed with N10.69k to close at N203.12 and Dangote Cement lost N8.34 to close at N216.56 per share.
Presco was down by N3.59 to close at N68.39, while Guinness dropped N2.50 to close at N82 per share.
Market analysts attributed the mixed performance, in spite of the interim dividends declared by Zenith Bank, GT Bank, Access Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA), to profit taking by investors in line with month-end activities.
They said that investors were taken advantage of the growth recorded by the market in recent time.
Conversely, Nigerian Breweries, for the second consecutive day, led the gainers’ table with a gain of N2.98 to close at N188 per share.
Union Bank of Nigeria followed with a gain of 29k to close at N6 and UBA, which declared an interim dividend of 20k, gained 21k to close at N9.71 per share.
Guaranty Trust Bank advanced by 10k to close at N40.60, while Dangote Flour increased by 9k to close at N6.49 per share.
Similarly, the volume of shares traded closed lower with an exchange of 238.16 million shares valued at N5.49 billion transacted in 4,162 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 264.29 million shares worth N5.53 billion traded in 3,849 deals on Wednesday.
The banking equities remained the most traded with Guaranty Trust Bank emerging the most active stock, trading 71 million shares valued at N2.89 billion.
Access Bank followed with an account of 37.10 million shares worth N371.44 million, while UBA traded 21.85 million shares valued at N208.59 million.
Zenith International Bank exchanged 17.51 million shares worth N411.13 million and FBN Holdings sold 12.50 million shares valued at N75.02 million