Major blue chips post losses on NSE

Major blue chips on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday maintained a free fall with the market indices downgrading further by 0.30 per cent.

Newsverge reports that Nigerian Breweries led the losers’ pack with a loss of N4.48 per share to close at N113.02 per share.

UACN trailed with a loss of 75k to close at N14.35, Stanbic IBTC shed 50k to close at N16.50 and Forte Oil declined by 18k to close at N62.32 per share.

Vitafoam also depreciated by 10k to close at N1.98 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalisation, which opened at N8.697 trillion, lost N26 billion to close at N8.671 trillion, amid profit taking.

Also, the All-Shares Index decreased by 74.97 points or 0.30 per cent to close at 25,055.29 compared with 25,130.26 posted on Wednesday.

Conversely, Julius Berger led the gainers’ table, appreciating by N1.74 to close at N36.57 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed with a gain of 20k to close at N24 and FBN Holdings gained 14k to close at N3.34 per share.

Total Nigeria rose by 11k to close at N270, while Eterna Oil increased by 10k to close at N3.34 per share.

Similarly, the volume of shares traded closed lower with an exchange of 144.39 million shares worth N1.54 billion transacted in 2,303 deals, against 161.94 million shares valued at N1.79 billion traded in 4,216 deals on Wednesday.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) was the toast of investors, accounting for 30.38 million shares worth N146.85 million.

GTBank followed with a total of 23.64 million shares valued at N566.73 million and FCMB Group traded 13.09 million shares worth N16.89 million.

Zenith International  Bank exchanged 12.78 million shares valued at N191.67 million, while United Capital sold 10.63 million shares worth N39.37 million.