Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened on Monday on a bearish trend with the market capitalisation dipping by N68 billion following losses by blue chip companies.

The market capitalisation closed at N12.368 trillion against N12.436 trillion reached on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 206.39 basis points or 0.55 per cent to close lower at 37,343.85 compared with 37,550.24 recorded on Friday.

An analysis of price movement chart showed that Lafarge Wapco topped the losers’ chart with a loss of N5.49 to close at N104.50 per share.

7UP Bottling Nigeria trailed with N5 to close at N160 while Dangote Cement dipped N2.32 to close at N212.50 per share.

PZ industries dropped by N2.32 to close at N21.52 while Cadbury depreciated by N2.13 kobo to close at N40.65 per share.

On the other hand, Zenith Bank led the gainers’ table increasing by N1.06 to close at N22.26 per share.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) followed with a gain of 25k to close at N5, while Skye Bank appreciated by 24k to close at N2.64 per share.

GT Bank grew by 20k to close at N25.20 while Vitafoam appreciated by 8k to close at N4.25 per share.

The financial service sector led the activities in volume terms, with an exchange of 175.28 million shares worth N1.02 billion accounted in 2,217 deals.

The banking sub-sector was most active in the sector, accounting for 93.25 million shares valued at N753.44 million traded in 1,288 deals.

Sterling Bank was the toast of investors in the sub-sector, with a turnover of 34.95 million shares worth N80.34 million transacted in 31 deals.

The conglomerates sector trailed with a total of 68.61 million shares valued N308.16 million achieved in 453 deals.

Investors’ staked N3.29 billion on 285.13 million shares transacted in 4,306 deals.

This was against a turnover of 330.76 million shares worth N3.55 billion traded in 4,562 deals on Friday.