Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, on Thursday, August 24, lost balance pulling down lead indices of the bourse/
Consequently, the All Share Index (ASI) dropped by 1.30 per cent to 36,575.86 points today as investors embarked on taking profit from preceding positive sessions.
Similarly, market capitalization depreciated N167bn from N12.773trn to close at N12.607trn, moderating the Year-to-Date returns to 36.1 per cent.
Market breadth closed negative with 19 gainers against 25 losers, with MRS leading the laggard’s chart dropping 5.02 percent to close at N33.66.
Custodian and Allied Insurance followed with a drop of 5 per cent to close at N3.42. Mobil also recorded a loss of 5 per cent to close at N203.12 per share, Presco declined by 4.99 per cent to close at N68.39 while Conoil depreciated 4.97 per cent to close at N29.07.
On the flip side, Union Bank Nigeria led the gainers pack, adding 5.08 per cent to close at N6, Neimeth trailed with a gain of 5.06 percent to close at 83 kobo. Law Union & Rocks increased 4.3 per cent to close at 97 kobo, AIICO added 3.64 per cent to close at 57 kobo per share while Skye Bank improved 3.23 per cent and closed at 64 kobo.
Guaranty was the most active stock with 71 million shares valued at N2.9 billion. Access Bank followed with 37.1 million shares worth N371.4 million while UBA came in third place with 21.9 million shares at 208.6 million. Zenith Bank exchanged 17.5 million shares at N411.1 million while FBN Holdings traded 12.5 million shares worth N75 million.
At the end of trading, total volume traded slumped by 10 percent to 238.2 million shares valued at N5.5 billion exchanged in 4,162 deals.
