January 18, 2018

Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday closed lower halting over 10-day upward trend with the All-Share Index dropping by 0.08 per cent due to profit taking.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the index dropped marginally by 36.50 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 44,848.74 as against 44,885.24 recorded on Wednesday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N16.080 trillion lost N13 billion or 0.08 per cent to close at N16.067 trillion.

NAN reports that some major capitalised equity posted price loss with Nigerian Breweries leading the losers’ table, shedding N4.05 to close at N142 per share.

Presco trailed with a loss of N3.61 to close at N68.69, while Unilever was down by N2.02 to close at N45 per share.

Larfarge Africa dipped N2.01 to closed at N51.99, while NASCON depreciated by N1.52 to close at N19.48 per share.

On the other hand, Nestle Nigeria led the gainers’ table, increasing by N20 to close at all time-high of N1,500 per share.

CCNN followed with a gain of N1.64 to close at N17.78, while FBN Holdings gained 99k to close at N14.75 per share.

GTBank added 96k to close at N52.11, while Guinness advanced by 55k to close at N120.25 per share.

Transcorp remained the most active, exchanging 11.31 million shares worth N553.61 million.

Wema Bank followed with an account of 157.85 million shares valued at N163.76 million, while FCMB Group traded 143.57 million shares worth N516.83 million.

FBN Holdings exchanged 141.04 million shares at a cost of N2.12 billion, while Diamond Bank exchanged 140.82 million shares worth N487.85 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded closed higher as investors bought and sold 1.34 billion shares valued at N10. 73 billion transacted in 11,355 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 960.75 million shares worth N12.52 billion traded in 8,866 deals on Wednesday.