By Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
Major blue chips for the second trading day in July posted price depreciation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), dragging the All-Share Index down further by 1.09 per cent.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the index on Tuesday dropped further by 359.60 points or 1.09 per cent to close at 32,410.20 posted on Monday.
Also, the market capitalisation, which opened at N11. 331 trillion dipped N162 billion to close at N11.169 trillion due to huge losses.
An analysis of the price movement table indicated that Seplat topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N4.95 to close at N460.05 per share.
Guinness came second with a loss of N3.39 to close at N64.54 and Nigerian Breweries lost N3 to close at N158.05 per share.
Conoil declined by N2.11 to close at N40.23, while Julius Berger was down by N1.78 to close at N33.83 per share.
On the other hand, Red Star led the gainers’ table for the day, increasing by 49k to close at N5.32 per share.
Northern Nigeria Flour Mills followed with a gain of 23k to close at N5.70, while Honey Well Flour Mills appreciated by 19k to close at N2.12 per share.
UACN gained 10k to close at N2.80 and Africa Prudential Registrar added 6k to close at N2.08 per share.
In spite of the drop in market indices, the volume of shares traded closed upbeat as investors bought and sold 206.18 million shares worth N1.70 billion exchanged in 4,294 deals.
NAN reports that this was against a turnover of 162.35 million shares valued at N1.52 billion traded in 3,488 deals on Monday.
In the banking sub-sector, Fidelity Bank drove the activity chart, trading 33.17 million shares worth N42.27 million.
Transcorp came second with an account of 24.44 million shares valued at N34.49 million and Access Bank traded 17.56 million shares worth N162.44 million.
FBN Holdings exchanged 15.57 million shares valued at N92.33 million, while Sterling Bank sold 13.38 shares worth N13.59 million.
