Activities re-opened on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on bearish note on Wednesday after the long holidays with the indices dropping by 1.64 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation shed N225 billion or 1.64 per cent to close at N13.483 trillion from the N13.708 trillion posted on Friday.

The All-Share Index, which opened at 38,522.14, lost 632.57 points or 1.64 per cent to close at 37,889.57 amid huge price loses by some blue chips.

A breakdown of the price movement table showed that Dangote Cement led the losers’ table with a loss N9.50 to close at N230.50 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N5.96 to close at N134.04, while Okomu Oil dropped N3.56 to close at N67.69 per share.

Presco was down by N3.50 to close at N68.50, while PZ Industries declined by 76 kobo to close at N20.62 per share.

Conversely, Mobil Oil led gainers table for the day, increasing by N8.31 to close at N178.31.

Cadbury followed with a gain of N1.42 to close at N15.75, while Dangote Sugar Refinery gained 51 kobo to close at N20.15 per share.

Eterna Oil grew by 12 kobo to close at N4.35, while Fidelity Bank added 11 kobo to close at N2.49 per share.

However, in spite of the drop in market indicators, the volume of shares transacted surged by 108.31 per cent with 425.96 million shares valued at N2.12 billion traded in 2,937 deals.

NAN reports that this was in contrast to the 204.48 million shares worth N1.53 billion traded in 2,889 deals on Friday.

Transcorp emerged the most active stock exchanging 107.10 million shares valued at N154.77 million.

Fidelity Bank followed with 94.01 million shares worth N220.75 million, while Skye Bank sold 51.65 million shares valued at N25.82 million.

AIICO Insurance accounted for 40.14 million shares worth N20.88 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 37.94 million shares valued at N340.86 million. (NAN)

Update news