The bears strengthened their hold on the equity sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as virtually all the blue-chip stocks recorded price depreciation at the end of yesterday’s transactions, causing market capitalisation to dip further by N155 billion.

Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday, , the All-Share Index shed 426.70 absolute points, representing a decline of 1.06 per cent to close at 39,723.85 points from 40,150.55.
Similarly, the market capitalisation of listed equities depreciated by N155 billion from N14.543 trillion to N14.389 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Flour Mills Nigeria, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Zenith Bank and Dangote Sugar.

Analysts at APT Securities and Funds Limited attributed yesterday’s loss to another drop back in big cap stocks in consumer goods and financial sector, adding that “we expect the market to close the week on a negative note.”

Analysts at Cordros Capital noted that: “despite persisting selloffs and continued sessions of sideways trading, still-positive macro-economic fundamentals remain suggestive of gains in the equities market in the long term.”

Market breadth closed negative, with eight gainers versus 35 losers. Diamond Bank led the losers’ chart by 8.28 per cent, to close at N1.44 per share. Fidelity Bank shed 5.50 per cent to close at N2.06, while Caverton depreciated by five per cent to close at N2.47 per share.

Nigerian Breweries declined by 4.99 per cent to close at N116.10 and Dangote Flour also shed 4.98 per cent to close at N9.55 per share.

On the other hand, MRS Oil Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 10.10 per cent, to close at N34.35 per share. Ikeja Hotel followed with a gain of 4.91 per cent to close at N2.35, while Law Union & Rock Insurance appreciated by 4.44 per cent to close at 94 kobo per share.

Niger Insurance appreciated by 4.17 per cent to close at 25 kobo, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance gained 3.33 per cent to close at 31 kobo per share.

The total volume traded depreciated by 3.85 per cent to 256.43 million shares, worth N2 billion, and traded in 4,111 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Sovereign Trust Insurance topped the activity chart with 53.53 million shares valued at N13.39 million. Diamond Bank followed with 29.56 million shares worth N43.89 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 26.81 million shares valued at N55.42 million.

Zenith Bank traded 20.37 million shares valued at N558.31 million, while UBA transacted 13.03 million shares worth N145.8 million.