Transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed yesterday for 2016 on a negative trend with the All-Share Index dropping by 0.95 per cent due to profit taking.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the index which opened at 28,642.25 lost 271.93 points or 0.95 per cent to close at 28,370.32.

Also, the market capitalisation lost N93 billion to close at N9.757 trillion compared with N9.850 trillion posted on Thursday.

Nestle recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers' chart, dropping by N30 to close at N830 per share.

It was trailed by Nigerian Breweries with a loss of N6.80 to close at N129.20, while GlaxoSmithKline lost N1.71 to close at N32.49 per share.

Ashaka Cement declined by N1 to close at N24 and Transcorp Hotel dropped by 29k to close at N5.51 per share.

On the other hand, Okomu Oil led the gainers' table, growing by N1.48 to close at N31.78 per share.

Cement Company of Northern Nigeria followed with a gain of 31k to close at N9.66, while Zenith Bank gained 25k to close at N14.30 per share.

Guinness increased by 12k to close at N120.52 and Oando gained 10k to close at N6 per share.

Austin Laz drove the volume of shares traded, exchanging 15.71 million shares worth N32.84 million traded in one deal.

FBN Holdings followed with an exchange of 10.70 million shares valued N52.96 million transacted in 246 deals, while Transcorp sold 8.45 million shares worth N12.77 million achieved in 120 deals.

Access Bank traded 8.02 million shares valued N38.54 million in 99 deals and UBA sold 7.12 million shares worth N24.06 million transacted in 138 deals.

In all, investors’ staked N98.97 billion shares on 700.52 million traded in 2,307 deals.

NAN reports that this was against 252.16 million shares valued N3.85 billion traded by investors' in 2,160 deals on Thursday.

In another development, the Naira yesterday depreciated by 0.8 per cent to exchange at N265 to the dollar at the parallel market; however, at the official interbank window, the Naira exchanged at N197 to the dollar.

Traders at the market were hopeful that the Naira would rebound in 2016 if the apex bank continued to enforce its policies at the foreign exchange market.

Besides, the price of crude oil at the international market hedged up to 38.9 dollars per barrel from about 35.7 dollars per barrel at the weekend.

Oil prices rose on Monday after a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran that some speculated could result in supply restrictions.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday in response to the storming of its embassy in Tehran following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric on Saturday.

•Story based on NAN reports.

Update news