The local equity market on Friday took a negative direction, shedding N160 billion as losses recorded in the shares of Oando Plc, GTCO Plc, Stanbic IBTC, Fidelity Bank outweigh gains in the stocks of Vitafoam Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Betaglass Chellaram among others.
The market capitalisation of listed equities depreciated by 0.25 per cent to N64.708 trillion from N64.868 trillion reported the previous day.
The NGX All Share Index also declined by 248.31 basis points to 104496.12 points from 104744.43 points traded on Thursday.
The negative performance during the day was driven primarily by profit taking in small, medium and large stocks which impacted negatively on the market.
As a result, the year-to-date return went down to 1.53 per cent as 38 companies closed in green against 28 firms that took negative directions.
A review of the investment showed that Betaglass led gainers with 10 per cent to close at N71.50 per unit, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc followed with a gain of 9.98 per cent to close at N31.95 per share, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills added 9.98 per cent to close at N60.60 per unit, Chellaram Plc gained 9.93 per cent to close at N6.53 per unit, TIP increased by 9.90 per cent to close at N3.44 per share.
On the contrary, Oando Plc recorded the highest loss during the day, shedding 10 per cent to close at N68.40 per unit, Stanbic IBTC trailed with a loss of 9.94 per cent to close at N64.35 per share, Ikeja Hotel dipped by 9.84 per cent to close at N11.00 per unit, UPDC fell by 9.66 per cent to close at N1.87 per unit, Regal Insurance dipped by 9.21 per cent to close at N0.69 per share.
The volume of trades increased by 767.637 million, representing 154.34 per cent as investors traded 1.265 billion shares valued at N15.422 billion in 14540 deals against 497.363 million shares worth N11.841 billion in 13716 deals.
Transactions in the shares of NSLTech led market activities with 599.536 million shares valued at N413.814 million, Japaul Gold followed with account of 108.360 million shares worth N237.571 million, FBNHoldings traded 85.454 million shares cost N2.544 billion, Veritas Kapital exchanged 67.342 million shares valued at N72.709 million while GTCO Plc exchanged 32.726 million shares cost N2.033 billion.