Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) on Friday returned to a negative performance, declining by N306 billion.
The market capitalisation of listed equities decreased by 0.19 per cent to N159.587 trillion from N159.893 trillion reported the previous day.
The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 474.00 basis points to 247357.40 points from 247831.40 points traded on Thursday.
Although the market breadth was positive with 33 gainers and 25 decliners, negative performance in major stocks like Presco and 24 other companies outweighed the gains recorded in the shares of Cornerstone Insurance, Honey Well Flour, and C&I Leasing, bringing the year-to-date return lower to 58.96 per cent.
An analysis of the investment showed that CNIF led the gainers’ table with a gain of 10 per cent to close at N127.60 per unit; C&I Leasing followed with a gain of 9.48 per cent to close at N6.35 per unit; Cornerstone Insurance added 9.09 per cent to close at N6.00 per unit; RTBriscoe grew 8.61 per cent to close at N13.25 per share; HoneyWell Flour gained 7.38 per cent to close at N17.45 per unit; Universal Insurance added 6.67 per cent to close at N0.96 per share.
On the contrary, Presco topped the losers’ chart, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N2070.00 per unit; ThomasWyatt trailed with a loss of 9.93 per cent to close at N3.63 per unit; TransExpress down by 8.44 per cent to close at N2.82 per unit; Royal Express fell by 7.86 per cent to close at 1.29 per unit, and Living Trust fell by 7.32 per cent to close at N4.10 per share.
Further analysis showed that the volume of trades went down by 167.80 million, representing 21.45 per cent as investors traded 614.550 million shares against 782.350 million recorded the previous day; the value of shares traded went down by 41.47 per cent to settle of N32.950 billion in 55282 deals.
Trading in the shares of Access Holdings Company led the market activities with 123.703 million shares valued at N3.693 billion; United Bank for Africa followed with 30.201 million shares valued at N1.445 billion; Zenith Bank traded 29.297 million shares valued at N3.708 billion; Chams Plc traded 27.347 million shares cost N120.739 million, and Sovereign Trust Insurance exchanged 24.013 million shares worth N4.751 billion.
