Investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday staked N5.28 billion on 2.87 billion shares traded in 4,014 deals in massive sell pressure. This was against 299.70 million shares worth N2.55 billion transacted in 3,556 deals on Wednesday. Equity Assurance drove the volume of shares traded, exchanging 2.53 billion shares valued at N1.26 billion.
Zenith came second with 62.79 million shares worth N1.01 billion, while Access Bank sold 51.99 million shares valued at N221.04 million. GT Bank traded 40.92 million shares worth N901.07 million and Skye Bank exchanged 36.18 million shares worth N69.14 million. Seplat recorded highest price loss to lead the losers’ chart depreciation by N12.90 to close at N245.30 per share. Dangote Cement trailed with a loss of N6 to close at N177, while Guinness dropped N5 to close at N116 per share.
Total lost N1.80 to close at N152.20 and Okomu Oil Palm shed N1.14 to close at N21.71 per share. Consequently, the market capitalisation lost N101 billion or 0.98 per cent to close at N10.196 trillion compared with N10.297 trillion posted on Wednesday. Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 30,042.38 lost 294.81 points or 0.98 per cent to close at 29,747.57. Conversely, Nestle led the gainers’ table, gaining N42 to close at N882 per share. Flour Mills followed with a gain of 59k to close at N26, while Access Bank gained 20k to close at N4.27 per share. Skye Bank increased by 14k to close at N1.90 and Forte Oil garnered 10k to close at N219 per share.