Equities market sustains downward trend, down by 0.51%

The equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) sustained downward trend on Friday with the All-Share Index (ASI) shedding 145.51 points or 0.51 per cent to close at 28,566.79, against 28,712.30 recorded the previous day.

The market capitalization, also, opened at N13.993 trillion dipped by N71 billion or 0.51 per cent to close at a declined figure of N13.922 trillion.

A breakdown of the price movement showed that Nestle recorded the highest loss to lead the losers’ table, shedding N55 to close at N1,225 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N3 to close at N58, while MTN Nigeria Communications depreciated by 35k to close at N129.65 per share.

PZ Industries lost 25k to close at N6.20, while Vitafoam was down by 20k to close at N3.54 per share.

Conversely, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria led gainers table, increasing by 65k to close at N14.50 per share.

UACN followed with a gain of 20k to close at N6, while Access Bank gained 10k to close at N6.70 per share.

United Bank for Africa improved by 5k to close at N5.90, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) went up by 3k to close at 33k per share.

Similarly, the volume of shares traded, closed lower as investors bought and sold 100.37 million shares valued at N1.46 billion in 2,707 deals.

This was in contrast with 188.43 million shares worth N3.17 billion exchanged in 3,105 deals on Thursday.

The banking equities remained the toast of investors with Zenith Bank emerging the most active stock, exchanging 17.36 million shares valued at N329.88 million.

Stanbic IBTC followed with an account of 10.79 million shares worth N431.57 million, while FBN Holdings traded 8.45 million shares valued at N50.61 million.

United Bank for Africa sold a total of 8.40 million shares worth N49.64 million, while CHI accounted for 7.02 million shares valued at N2.31 million.