The bears again upstaged the bulls yesterday, as profit taking takes a toll on some highly capitalised stocks, especially Nigerian Breweries (NB), and Dangote Cement, causing market capitalisation to dip by N124billion.

At the close of transactions on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, (NSE), the All -Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 341.56 absolute points, representing a loss of 0.83 per cent to close at 40,651.41 points.

Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N124billion to close at N14.725trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Cement, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC, and WAPCO.

Analysts at Cordros Capital said: “Despite yesterday loss, strengthening macro-economic fundamentals remain supportive of our outlook for gains in the equities market.”

Market breadth closed negative with 18 gainers and 27 losers.
Nigerian Breweries topped the losers’ chart with N4.40 kobo to close at N123.30 per share, while Dangote Cement followed with N2.00 kobo to close at N248.00 per share.

Cement Company of Northern Nigeria lost N1.45 kobo to close at N26.10 kobo per share. Stanbic IBTC shed N1.00 kobo to close at N48.00 per share. WAPCO also shed N1.00 kobo to close at N40.00 per share.

On the other hand, Oando led others on the gainers’ chart with N0.35 kobo to close at N7.55 per share, while Flourmills followed with N0.30 kobo to close at N35.00 per share.

Custodian and Allied Insurance added N0.25 kobo to close at N5.25 per share. Zenith Bank appreciated by N0.15 kobo to close at N27.90 per share. UAC Properties gained N0.10 kobo to close at N2.25 per share.

However, the total volume traded increased by 63.5 per cent to 424.37 million shares, worth N7.57billion, and traded in 3,502 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 170.61 million shares valued at N4.74billion.

Access Bank followed with 44.21 million shares worth N486.26million, while FCMB Groups traded 25.86 million shares valued at N69.52million.
Niger Insurance traded 23.39 million shares valued at N5.15million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 16.33 million shares worth N36.39million.