Some major blue chips on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, recorded price depreciation as a result of profit taking by investors.

Blue chips generally sell high-quality, widely accepted products and services.

They are companies known to weather downturns and operate profitably in the face of adverse economic conditions a development that helps to contribute to their long record of stable and reliable growth.

However, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dangote Cement topped the price losers’ chart, dropping N1 to close at N20.9 per share.

UBN followed with a loss of 55k to close at N5.3 per share.

Lafarge Wapco depreciated by15k to close at N23, while Oando Oil and Zenith Bank lost 1k each to close at N5.25 and N20.9 per share respectively.

The All-Share Index lost 72.31 basis points or 0.21 per cent to close at 34,037.91 against 34,110.22 recorded on Thursday.

The market capitalisation dipped by N26 billion or 0.21 per cent to close at N12.426 trillion compared with N12.452 trillion achieved onThursday.

On the other hand, Glaxosmith led the gainers’ table with N1.2 to close at N14.3 per share.

Mobil Oil followed with a gain of N1 to close at N180, while Dangote Sugar grew by 9k to close at N16 per share.

Diamond Bank also gained 1k to close at N1.33, while Maybaker appreciated by 0.09k to close at N2.49 per share.

In all, investors staked N2.10 billion on 155.95 million shares in 52,715 deals, representing a growth of 5.19 per cent.

This was against 164.500 million shares worth N2.07 billion traded in 3,188 deals on Friday.

The financial services sector remained the most active with GTBank emerging the most traded equity with 27.19 million shares worth N948.89 billion.

Zenith Bank came second with 19.68 million shares valued at N412.01 million, while Sovrenins sold 12.66 million shares worth N3.04 million.

Fidelity accounted for 10.81 million shares valued at N18.56 million, while Sky Bank traded 7.88 million shares valued at N4.37 million.