Nigeria’s equities market opened the week on a negative note due to profit taking in some banking stocks.
Monday’s all-share index ended at 45,928.27, down 29.08 points or 0.06 per cent from Friday’s 45,957.35.
Thus, the year-to-date gain was 7.5 percent.
In addition, the market capitalisation dropped N12 billion to close at N24.749 trillion from N24.760 trillion.
A negative market performance was mainly driven by depreciations in large and medium capitalised stocks, such as Nigerian Breweries, United Capital, NEM Insurance, FBN Holdings and Zenith Bank.
A negative sentiment prevailed with 26 laggards outnumbering 15 gainers.
The share price of Regency Alliance Insurance fell 9.52 per cent to close at 38k per share, leading the losers’ chart in percentage terms.
NEM Insurance decreased 5.41 per cent to close at N3.50 per share while FTN Cocoa Processors lost 7.69 per cent to close at 36k.
Insurer Sovereign Trust Insurance dipped by 4.17 percent to close at 23 k while Cutix shed four percent to close at N2.40 per share.
Meanwhile, LivingTrust Mortgage Bank topped the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by closing at N1.14 per share, gaining 9.62 percent.
The share price of Northern Nigeria Flour Mills rose by 9.49 percent to close at N8.65, while Academy Press rose by 9.09 percent to close at 72 naira.
A share of Courteville Business Solutions rose by 8.70 percent to close at 50k, while a share of Associated Bus Company rose by 5.88 percent to close at 36k.
Likewise, the total volume of deals decreased by 1.06 per cent to 278.61 million units valued at N2.89 billion exchanged in 4,447 transactions.
A total of 281.59 million shares worth N2.41 billion were traded in 3,739 transactions on Friday.
Chams’ shares topped the activity chart with 40.55 million shares valued at N8.12 million.
United Bank for Africa traded 35.12 million shares worth N284.74 million, and Courteville Business Solutions traded 33.33 million shares worth N16.55 billion.
Sterling Bank exchanged 18.78 million shares valued at N30.10 million, while Access Bank transacted 17.07 million shares worth N166.41 million.