Transactions on the Nigerian stock market on Thursday closed on a negative note with a loss of N65 billion to halt four consecutive trading sessions.
The downturn was buoyed by price depreciation in the banking and oil and gas sectors, as market watchers continue to assess the published first-half performance of some of the companies.
Also, the All-Share Index dropped 126.32 points or 0.32 per cent to close at 38,801.51 compared with 38,927.83 posted on Wednesday.
Accordingly, month-to-date gain stood at 0.7 per cent, while year-to-date loss increased to 3.7 per cent.
The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks among which are MTN Nigeria Communications, Ardova, Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company, United Capital and Access Bank.
However, the market breadth closed positive with 18 gainers as against 16 losers.
Ardova led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 6.25 per cent to close at N15 per share.
Veritas Kapital Assurance followed with a loss of four per cent to close at 24k per share.
AIICO Insurance lost 2.06 per cent to close at 95k, while Japaul Gold and Ventures and Wapic Insurance shed 1.92 per cent each to close at 51k per share, each.
On the other hand, Conoil drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent to close at N20.35 per share.
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Consolidated Hallmark Insurance followed with 8.93 per cent to close at 61k, while Sovereign Trust Insurance went up by 7.69 per cent to close at 28k per share.
Regency Alliance Insurance rose by 7.14 per cent to close at 45k, while Mutual Benefits Assurance gained 5.56 per cent to close at 38k per share.
The total volume of trades declined by 32.2 per cent to 139.78 million units valued at N1.41 billion exchanged in 3,655 deals.
This is against a total of 231.45 million shares worth N2.N21 billion transacted in 4,651 deals on Wednesday.
Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa topped the activity chart with 16.43 million shares valued at N123.55 million.
GTCO followed with 13.01 million shares worth N364.85 million, while Zenith Bank traded 11.94 million shares valued at N291.55 million.
Wema Bank sold 9.60 million shares worth N8.49 million, while AIICO Insurance transacted 9.36 million shares valued at N8.85 million.