Despite price gains outweighing losses, equity transactions on the stock market closed on a downward note yesterday, as major highly capitalised stocks, especially Nigerian Breweries (NB), and International Breweries depreciated in price, causing market capitalisation to slide marginally by N3billion.

Specifically, at the close of trading yesterday, Nigerian Breweries recorded the highest loss, declining by 4.77 kobo to close at N145.23 per share, while International Breweries followed with a loss of N1.01 kobo to close at N48.99 per share.

Unilever Nigeria Plc dropped by 1.00 kobo to close at N40.00 per share. PZ industries shed 0 91 kobo to close at N22.70 per share. Dangote Cement went down by 0.50 kobo to close at N227.00 per share.

Airservice depreciated by 0.35 kobo to close at N6.76 per share. Custodian & Allied insurance lost 0.20 kobo to close at N3.80 per share. Fidson shed 0.15 kobo to close at N3.84 per share.

Vitafoam dropped 0.10 kobo to close at N2.75 per share. Zenith bank also declined by 0.07 kobo to close at N25.80 per share.

On the other hand, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc led the gainers chart, adding 1.58 kobo to close at N33.69 per share. FBNHoldings followed with a gain of 0.60 kobo to close at N7.11 per share.

NASCON added 0.45 kobo to close at N16.00 per share. United Bank for Africa appreciated by 0.39 kobo to close at 10.00 per share. Dangote Sugar Refinery Nigeria advanced by 0.28 kobo to close at N15.50 per share.

UACN garnered 0.21 kobo to close at N19.00 per share. Ecobank TransNational Incorporated gained 0.20 kobo to close at N17.20 per share. Eterna Oil added 0.18 kobo t close at N3.88 per share. UAC-Properties also appreciated by 0.13 kobo to close at N2.83 per share.

Consequently, market capitalisation of listed equities dropped by N3billion to N12.763 trillion from N12.766trillion traded yesterday, while the All -share index depreciated by 10.05 basis points to 36877.15 point from 36887.20 recorded on Wednesday.

Further analysis of yesterday’s transactions showed that FBNHoldings was the most active stock for the day, exchanging 73.408 million shares worth N513.222million.

Union Dicon followed with 58.005 million shares valued at N29.002million, United Bank For Africa exchanged 32.028 million shares worth N316.686million.

Fidelity Bank sold 19.747 million shares cost N30.958million, while Zenith International Bank traded 17.170 million shares worth N441.207 million.
Overall, investors traded 318.147 million shares worth N3.950billion in 5472 deals against 249.348 million shares valued at N5.202billion exchanged hands the previous day in 4119 deals.