The Nigerian stock market wrapped up the trading week on a downbeat note on Friday, with key performance indicators posting a marginal decline of 0.07 percent.
Market capitalisation dropped by ₦48 billion, settling at ₦70.462 trillion compared to the ₦70.510 trillion recorded on Thursday. Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) slipped by 76.07 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 111,742.01 from the previous session’s 111,818.08.
The day’s downturn was largely driven by profit-taking in several heavyweight equities, including Beta Glass, NCR Nigeria, Conoil, Legend Internet and 33 others.
The market breadth also closed in negative territory, with 37 stocks declining against 28 gainers.
Beta Glass and NCR Nigeria led the losers’ chart, each dropping by 10 percent to close at ₦232.65 and ₦6.57 per share respectively. Conoil shed 9.99 percent to end at ₦298.10, while Legend Internet fell by 9.94 percent to ₦6.16. Industrial Medical Gases was also down by 9.91 percent, closing the session at ₦33.65 per share.
On the gainers’ side, Omatek rose by 9.86 percent to close at 78 kobo, while Red Star Express gained 9.62 percent to finish at ₦8.32 per share.
Deap Capital Management added 9.38 percent to close at ₦1.05, and Sovereign Trust Insurance appreciated by 9.09 percent, ending the day at ₦1.08 per share. May and Baker also recorded a strong performance, rising by 8.26 percent to ₦11.80 per share.
In terms of trading volume and value, the market recorded a significant boost. A total of 1.90 billion shares valued at ₦64.14 billion were traded in 18,653 transactions. This marked a sharp increase from Thursday’s 556.45 million shares worth ₦17.17 billion traded across 18,505 deals.
United Bank for Africa led the activity chart, with 1.41 billion shares exchanged at a value of ₦49.02 billion. United Capital followed with 66.84 million shares worth ₦1.32 billion, while Access Corporation recorded a turnover of 53.97 million shares valued at ₦1.19 billion.
Fidelity Bank also saw notable activity, trading 31.38 million shares worth ₦606.09 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 29.93 million shares valued at ₦1.46 billion.