NSE escapes 40-day low by whiskers

But for last-minute trading that boosted the bourse on Monday, market capitalisation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) would have ended on a record 40-day low, below N12 trillion.

At 2pm on Monday, market capitalisation on the bourse stood at N11.97 trillion but rose to N12.02 trillion by the close of trading.

The last time it closed below N12 trillion was on July 24 when it recorded N11.94 trillion.

The market had hit a record high of N13 trillion on August 9, the first time since September 2014.

In the trading days that followed, the market experienced a steady decline though it had recorded gains on some days.

Guaranty Trust Bank led the gainers gaining N1 to close at N38, with Cadbury coming behind to close at N11 gaining N0.49.

Shares belonging to Airservice, Stanbic, ETI were some of the other stocks that recorded profit gaining N0.32, N0.3 and N0.2 to close at N6.82, N39.5 and N18 respectively.

Seplat topped the losers chart losing N24.03 to close at N456.76 as against the previous close of N480.79.

Nigerian Breweries lost N5 to close at N170 as against the previous close of N175 while PRESCO lost N2.49 to close at N58 as against the previous close of N60.49.

WAPCO and Oando lost N0.97 and N0.3 to close at N49 and N5.75 respectively.