By TAIYE OLAYEMI

Stock market investors traded 1.525 billion shares worth N43.006 billion in 51,156 transactions this week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Ltd.

This is in contrast to 2.094 billion shares valued at N52.967 billion that exchanged hands last week in 64,612 deals.

Consequently, the value of transactions traded by investors on the Exchange dropped by 23.15 per cent as investors lost N9.961 billion.

Meanwhile, the market opened for four trading days this week as the Federal Government declared Friday, April 18 and Monday, April 21 as public holidays to commemorate the 2025 Easter celebration.

Trading in the top three equities, namely Access Holdings Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, and Universal Insurance Plc, accounted for 448.105 million shares worth N6.730 billion in 6,481 deals.

This contributed 29.39 per cent and 15.65 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

The Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 1.122 billion shares valued at N24.015 billion traded in 28,818 deals.

This contributed 73.56 per cent and 55.84 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

The ICT industry followed with 101.252 million shares worth N4.819 billion in 2,541 transactions.

The third place was the Services Industry, with a turnover of 99.776 million shares worth N1.230 billion in 3,063 transactions.

The NGX All-Share Index and market capitalisation depreciated by 0.32 per cent to close the week at 104,233.81 and N65.499 trillion, respectively.

Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX Premium, NGX Pension, NGX MERI Growth, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil & Gas, NGX Lotus II, NGX Growth, NGX Sovereign Bond, and NGX Pension Broad Indices, which appreciated by 0.57 per cent, 0.42 per cent, 2.67 per cent, 2.33 per cent, 0.20 per cent, 0.16 per cent, 0.26 per cent, 0.39 per cent, and 0.55 per cent, respectively.

NGX ASeM and NGX Commodity indices closed flat.

Thirty-one equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 27 equities in the previous week.

Forty-four equities depreciated in price, lower than 56 in the previous week, while 72 equities remained unchanged, higher than 64 recorded in the previous week.

The top five decliners for the week were Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Zenith Bank, DAAR Communications, Caverton Offshore Support Group and RT Briscoe as they lost N9, N5.95, 7k, 27k, and 22k, respectively.

ABBEY Mortgage Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Associated Bus Company, Livestock Feeds and Unilever Nigeria were the top five gainers, and they grew by 46.17 per cent, 13.13 per cent, 12.70 per cent, 11.24 per cent, and 9.65 per cent, respectively.

The companies gained N2.83, N4.20, 16k, 96k, and N3.35, respectively. (NAN)

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