Trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE yesterday returned to bearish trend following the huge losses recorded by highly capitalised companies. The market capitalisation of listed equities fell by N117 billion or 0.92% from N12.708 trillion traded the previous day to N12.591 trillion. Also the NSE All share Index went down by 365.02 basis points to 39199.41 points from 39564.43 recorded the previous day.
Nestle Nigeria led the losers table for the day, depreciating by N25.00 to close at N1, 075.00. Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N13.98 kobo to close at N145.01 kobo, while Guinness Nigeria, Conoil and International Breweries dropped by N9.10 kobo, N2.58 kobo and N1.30 kobo respectively to close at N179.00, N49.12 kobo and N27.25 kobo.
Larfarge Wapco on the other hand led gainers table, gaining N4.46 kobo to close at N110.00. Glaxo SmithKline followed with a gain of N1.00 to close at N70.00, while Unilever Nigeria appreciated by N1.00 to close at N49.00. Other stocks that improved in price were Dangote Cement and UAC Property which enhanced by N1.00 and N0.98 kobo respectively to close at N240.00 and N20.97 kobo.
Financial service sector led trading activities for the day in volume terms, exchanging 272.362 million shares worth N3.045 billion in 2782 deals. Banking subsector was the toast of investors in the sector accounting for 188.659 million shares valued at N2.659 billion in 1691 deals.
UBA Capital stocks came second in the financial service sector with account of 70.163 million shares cost N375.546 million in 858 deals.Zenith International Bank Plc was investors delight in the banking sub sector with a total of 75.910 million shares worth N1.626 billion traded in 397 deals.