The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, flagged off the new week on Monday, January 22, on a sour note, dragging down market value.
Consequently the All Share Index which stood at 45,092.83 points on Friday, crashed by 0.40 percent or 180.30 points to settle at 44,912.53 points, shrinking the year-to-date return to 17.44 percent.
Likewise, the market capitalisation, which closed at N16.155 trillion on Friday, slumped by N64.6 billion to finish at N16.090 trillion.
The market breadth closed at equilibrium with 26 price gainers paired against 26 losers. Nestle led the price laggards’ table after dropping by N30 to settle at N1470 per share, and was followed by Unilever, which went down by N2.80k to close at N44.20k per share.
Forte Oil shed N1.78k to finish at N50 per share, GTBank dropped N1.20k to close at N53.51k per share, while UAC of Nigeria crashed by 39k to end at N17.10k per share.
Conversely, Beta Glass led the gainers’ table after rising N2.82k to its share value to close at N59.38k per share. PZ Cussons jumped by N1.10k to finish at N23.10k per share, and International Breweries grew by N1 to end at N64 per share.
Furthermore, Cadbury added 93k to close at N15.99k per share, while Nigerian Breweries increased by 81k to settle at N143 per share.
The Conglomerates sector led the activity chart on Monday with 3.9 billion shares worth N9.4 billion transacted by investors, while the Financial Services industry followed with 523.2 million equities valued at N5.2 billion exchanged.
Transcorp emerged as the most traded equity in terms of volume on the local bourse, selling 3.9 billion shares worth N9.3 billion.
Diamond Bank followed after trading 85.8 million shares valued at N297.9 million, and FCMB, which transacted 76.7 million equities for N267 million.
Fidelity Bank sold 69 million shares for N266 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 57.7 million shares valued at N785.7 million.
At the close of trading, the total volume of equities exchanged by investors leaped by 231.25 percent from 1.3 billion to 4.4 billion. Total value of stocks also surged marginally by 84.57 percent.
