NSE loses N246bn in bearish trading

The bears dominated trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday with the market capitalisation losing N246 billion in six hours of trading.

Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N21.224 trillion shed N246 billion to close at N20.978 trillion.

Similarly, the NSE All-Share Index decreased by 470.64 points or 1.16 per cent to close at 40,120.22 from 40,590.85 posted on Thursday.

A breakdown of the price movement shows that Dangote Cement topped the losers’ chart with N19.90 to close at N225 per share.

Lafarge Africa trailed with a loss of 10k to close at N22.30, while Vitafoam lost 5k to close at N8.95 per share.

Redstar Express dipped by 3k to close at N3.40, while UPL was also down by 3k to close at N1.25 per share.

On the other hand, Seplat led the gainers’ table, increasing by N45.10 to close at N496.10 per share.

Total followed with a gain of N13 to close at N143, while Okomu Oil garnered N2.50 to close at N92.50 per share.

Ardova added N1.45 to close at N16.35, while BOC Gas improved by N1.15 to close at N12.65 per share.

Access Bank was the most active stock exchanging, 35.11 million shares valued at N315.78 million.

Transcorp followed with an account of 25.06 million shares worth N24.09 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 24.89 million shares valued at N821.26 million.

Zenith Bank exchanged 23.69 million shares N606.29 million, while Japaul Gold sold 22.39 million shares cost N21.73 million.

In all, investors bought 333.31 million shares valued at N3.65 billion exchanged in 5,142 deals.

This was against a total 2.13 billion shares worth N7.51 billion traded in 4,558 deals on Thursday.