Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened for the month on a negative note with the market indicators depreciating by 0.60 per cent due to sell pressure. Market capitalisation lost N57 billion or 0.60 per cent to close at N9.562 trillion compared with N9.619 trillion achieved on Friday. In the same vein, the All-Share Index which opened at 28,009.93 shed 166.93 points or 0.60 per cent to close at 27,843.00.
The downturn was strongly impacted by losses recorded by PZ, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness, Nestle, Zenith Bank and Forte Oil. Major blue chips recorded price depreciation and this was led by Nestle Nigeria which dipped N12.50 to close at N837.50 per share. Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N3.99 to close at N134 and Guinness Nigeria dropped N1.50 to close at N93 per share. PZ Industries lost N1 to close at N17.60 and Cadbury declined by 71k to close at N13.56 per share.
Conversely, Total led the gainers’ table, growing by N18.59 to close at N200.09 per share. Okomu Oil followed with a gain of N1.34 to close at N35 and Flour Mills gained N1.30 to close at N21.50 per share. Unilever improved by 35k to close at N35 and Dangote Flour grew by 25k to close at N4.90 per share. United Bank for Africa emerged the most traded stock, trading 101.37 million shares worth N466.32 million.
FCMB Group followed with 56.76 million shares valued at N84.32 million and Guaranty Trust Bank traded 52.27 million shares worth N1.26 billion. Skye Bank sold 20.12 million shares valued at N14.25 million and Zenith Bank traded 15.51 million shares worth N259.16 million. In all, investors bought and sold a total of 331.69 million shares valued at N4.75 billion exchanged in 4,114 deals. This was against the 442.53 million shares worth N4.65 billion traded in 4,427 deals on Friday.
