Dealers at the Nigerian Stock Exchange

After two days of bullish trading, activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange  (NSE) on Wednesday closed negatively with the market indices dropping by 2.62 per cent.

The News Agency of Nigeria  (NAN) reports that the drop came amid profit taking, just as predicted by market analysts.

The market capitalisation shed N311 billion  or 2.62 per cent to close at N11.576 trillion compared with N11.887 trillion  recorded on Tuesday.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 897.71 points to close at 33,477.89 against 34,375.60 achieved on Tuesday.

NAN reports that major blue chips recorded price depereciation with Nestle leading the losers’ chart with a loss of N10 to close at N900 per share.

Dangote Cement trailed with a loss of N8.97 to close at N205 and 7UP shed N2.99 to close at N90.01 per share.

Lafarge Africa was down by N2.20 to close at N52 and Nigeria Breweries  depreciated by N2 to close at N166 per share.

On the other hand, Conoil that led the gainers’ table, growing by N1.92  to close at N40.42 due to investors reaction to the N3.10 dividend proposed for 2016 financial year.

CAP followed with a gain of 79k to close at N34.99 while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria appreciated by 53k to close at N11.27 per share.

UACN added 35k to close at N17.90 and NASCON increased by 20k to close at N10 per share.

In spite of the drop in market indices, the volume of shares traded closed higher with an exchange of 508.73 million shares worth N6.39 billion transacted in 5,876 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 392.27 million shares valued at N4.23 billion  transacted in 5,412 deals on Tuesday.

Zenith Bank drove the activity chart, trading 87.93 million shares worth N1.86 billion.

Fidelity Bank followed with an account of 53.32 million shares valued at N71.48 million and Guaranty Trust Bank  traded 50.28 million shares worth N1.79 billion.

Diamond Bank exchanged 45.63 million shares valued at N55.67 million, while United Bank for Africa sold 40.45 million shares  worth N336.85 million. (NAN)

In his words, the NEMA representative Mr. Sulaiman promised NEMA’s readiness to always support the State as it has done in the past, assuring that the agency would continue to fulfill its obligations to the people of the country.