Chris Ndibe
The nation’s bourse opened the month of April with a loss of N67 billion, amid profit taking ahead of Easter celebrations.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened for the month at N20.428 trillion dipped N67 billion or 0.33 per cent to close at N20.361 trillion.
The downturn was supported by investors’ portfolio readjustment ahead of first quarter earnings.
Also, the All-Share Index dropped by 128.39 points or 0.33 per cent to close at 38, 916.74 from 39,045.13 recorded on Wednesday.
The market loss was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Lafarge Africa, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Guaranty Trust Bank and NEM Insurance.
FTN Cocoa Processors led the losers’ chart in percentage terms losing 8.70 per cent to close at 42k per share.
NEM Insurance followed with a decline of 7.39 per cent to close at N2.13, while Unity Bank shed 6.67 per cent to close at 70k per share.
Regency Alliance Insurance dropped 3.33 per cent to close at 29k, while Livestock Feeds shed 2.60 per cent to close at N1.87 per share.
Conversely, Royal Exchange and UACN dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 10 per cent each to close at 33k and N9.90 per share, respectively.
Japaul Gold and Ventures followed with a gain 9.76 per cent to close at 45k per share.
Cutix rose by 9.31 per cent to close at N2.23, while Linkage Assurance gained 9.09 per cent to close at 72k per share.
Transactions in the shares of UAC topped the activity chart with 37.38 million shares valued at N370.01 million.
Transcorp followed with 25.93 million shares worth N20.88 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 12.6 million shares valued at N31.45 million.
Flour Mills traded 10.36 million shares worth N300.40 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank transacted 9.65 million shares valued at N289.61 million.
In all, the total volume of traded dipped by 2.54 per cent with an exchange of 239.42 million shares valued at N2.32 billion exchanged in 4,45 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 347.17 million shares worth N2.80 billion achieved in 3,990 deals on Wednesday.
