Nigeria’s capital market drops by N18bn

Trading activities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the second consecutive day remained on a negative, with the market capitalisation dropping by N18 billion.

The market capitalisation on Thursday lost 0.16 per cent to close at N10.685 trillion against N10.703 trillion recorded on Wednesday following price loses.

Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 31,267.25 lost 50.53 points or 0.16 per cent to close at 31,216.72.

Mobil topped the losers’ table, declining by N2.82 to close at N153.18 per share.

Nigerian Breweries came second with a loss of N1.15 to close at N129, while Northern Nigeria Flour Mills dipped 90k to close at N17.15 per share.

Unilever garnered 78k to close at N37.32, while Lafarge Africa increased by 50k to close at N99 per share.

On the other hand, 7UP led the gainers’ table, increasing by N9 to close at N194 per share.

Beta Glass followed with a gain of N1.80 to close at N39.50, while Berger Paint appreciated by 95k to close at N10.31 per share.

Ecobank Transnational inched 29k to close at N19.89, while National Salt went up by 25k to close at N6.90 per share.

Also, the volume of shares traded dropped by 36.68 per cent as investors bought and sold 208.49 million shares worth N3.24 billion transacted in 3,727 deals.

This was against the 329.26 million shares valued N2.58 billion traded in 4,457 deals on Wednesday.

Union Diagnostic and Clinical Services was most active stock in volume terms, accounting for 70 million shares worth N35 million achieved in two deals.

Access Bank trailed with 17.49 million shares valued at N90.91 million traded in 101 deals, and Transcorp sold 13.26 million shares worth N31.11 million exchanged in 160 deals.

FBN Holdings exchanged 12.65 million shares valued at N98.65 million traded in 403 deals and GT Bank transacted 9.21 million shares worth N324.55 million in 333 deals.