Equity transactions on the stock market closed on a downturn yesterday, following price losses suffered by major highly capitalised stocks, especially Dangote Cement, and Total, as investors’ wealth depreciated significantly by 1.53 per cent.

Yesterday, the All-share index, which measures the performance of listed firms dropped by 657.07 points 1.51 per cent, the biggest loss in the month so far to 42,952.70 points, from 43,609.77 recorded on Tuesday.

Similarly, market capitalisation of listed equities declined by N236billion or 1.53 per cent from N15.666trillion to N15.430trillion.The drop in indices may, however, be attributed to profit taking by investors to recoup the investment from price appreciation of the previous week.Precisely, analysts from Codros Capital, said: “The drop is due to investors booking profit on previous gains in major stocks. Despite loss in today’s session, we believe legroom for gains still exist; more so, as investors position ahead of Q4 2017 corporate earnings releases.”

About 23 stocks constituted the losers chart at the end of yesterday’s trading. Dangote Cement emerged the day’s highest price loser with 9.90 kobo to close at N265.00 per share.Total followed with 9.80 kobo to close at N240.20 per share. Nestle lost 5.00 kobo to close at N1375 per share. Nigerian Breweries dropped 1.30 kobo to close at N125.60 per share. Guaranty Trust Bank shed 0.90 kobo to close at N47.60 per share.

However, 26 stocks appreciated in price, as Flour Mills topped the gainers’ chart with 1.40 kobo to close at N36.00 per share while GlaxoSmithKline followed with 1.00 kobo to close at N22.00 per share.Eternal Oil gained 0.59 kobo to close at N6.40 per share. Unilever appreciated by 0.50 kobo to close at N60.10 per share. Cadbury also added 0.40 kobo to close at N16.00 per share.

Zenith Bank dominated in volume terms with 64 million shares worth N2billion. Japaul Oil followed with 17 million units valued at N14million. Sterling Bank accounted for 16 million units worth N30million.

Fidelity Bank exchanged 16 million units worth N50million. Transnational Corporation traded 14 million units valued at N28million.On the whole, investors exchanged 270 million shares worth N5billion in 4,799 deals, down from 445 million shares valued at N1.9billion that changed hands in 5,078 on Tuesday.