Following price depreciation in many blue chip stocks, the Nigerian equities market sustained sliding profile yesterday as the all share index (ASI) to slide further by 0.9 per cent.
At the close of transactions yesterday, the index declined by 878.64 points, representing a loss of 0.86 per cent, to close at 101,227.67. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value shed N481 billion to close at N55.390 trillion.
The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Dangote Sugar Refinery, NASCON Allied Industries, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, PZ Cussons Nigeria and Flour Mills of Nigeria.
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, remained negative as seven stocks advanced, while 53 declined. Meyer recorded the highest price gain of 9.97 per cent to close at N6.29 kobo.
Juli followed with a gain of 9.52 per cent to close at 92 kobo, while Tantalizer up by 4.76 per cent to close at 44 kobo.
Red Star Express appreciated by 4.05 per cent to close at N3.85, while Lasaco Assurance also rose by 3.54 per cent to close at N2.63 kobo.
On the other hand, NASCON Allied Industries, Unity Bank, Consolidated Hallmark Holdings and Sterling Financial Holdings Company led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N58.50 kobo, N2.52 kobo, N1.44 kobo and N5.31 kobo respectively. Eterna followed with a decline of 9.95 per cent to close at N19.90 kobo while PZ Cussons Nigeria lost 9.91 per cent to close at N30.90 kobo.
The total volume traded increased by 39.91 per cent to 478.381 million units, valued at N7.172 billion, and exchanged in 10,957 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Universal Insurance topped the activity chart with 42.766 million shares valued at N16.094 million.
Transnational Corporations (Transcorp) followed with 41.536 million shares worth N528.073 million, while Zenith Bank traded 31.746 million shares valued at N1.123 billion.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 31.377 million shares valued at N741.7 million, while Access Holdings transacted 31.213 million shares worth N729.398 million.
