NSE trading maintains bearish trend, All-Shares index dips by 257.62 points

The bears continued to dominate trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with the All-Share Index dropping further by 257.62 points.

Our correspondent reports that the index shed 257.62 points or 0.78 per cent on Wednesday to close at 32,454.03 against the 32,711.65 achieved on Tuesday.

The market has maintained a downward trend for three consecutive days with price losers’ out weighing the price gainers.

Some market operators said that the downward trend might persist until after the primaries of the political parties.

They said that politicians were looking for funds to achieve their political ambitions.

The market capitalisation also shed N94 billion or 0.78 per cent to close at N1.848 trillion in contrast with N11.942 trillion achieved on Tuesday.

14 stocks recorded price depreciation, while 15 stocks posted price appreciated.

Dangote Cement led the price losers’ table with a loss of N4.90 to close at N200 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N72.50 to close at N89 per share, while Unilever lost N1 to close at N45.

Access Bank and UBA lost 10K each to close at N8.05 and N8.30 per share respectively.

Nestle recorded the highest price gain of N1 to close at N1,400 per share, while Dangote Sugar followed with a gain of 60k to close at N14.50 per share.

Zenith Bank appreciated by 30k to close at N21.80, Cutix Paint and GTBank added 20k each to close at N4.30and N36.70 per share, respectively.

Zenith Bank was the most active stock, trading 36.50 million shares worth N319.44 million.

GTBank followed with 23.46 million shares valued at N93.37 million, while FBN Holdings traded 20.99 million shares worth N23.29 million.

Transcorp exchanged 17.35 million shares valued at N8.38 million, while International Breweries sold 13.12 million shares worth N61.83 million.

In all, investors traded 136.73 million shares valued at N1.43 billion in 2,801 deals on Wednesday.

This was in contrast to the 184.59 million shares worth N3.38 billion achieved in 2,889 deals on Tuesday.