NSE ASI down 0.55% as investors lose N48bn

THE Nigerian equities market further declined on Wednesday with the All Share Index (ASI) dropping 0.55 percent to close at 25,253.87 points compared to 0.31 percent lost previous session when ASI settled at 25,406.72 points.

The day’s performance erased month to date gains to record returns of -0.24 per cent and further increased the year to date loss to -6 per cent, while Market capitalisation decreased from N8.791 trillion to N8.743 trillion.

Major sectoral market indexes also closed lower in the course of the day’s trading as the Banking index posted the highest loss of 2.44 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index emerged the day’s sole gainer with a growth of 0.38 per cent

FCMB topped the day’s losers with a depreciation of 6.40 per cent to close at N1.17 per share, Unilever followed to close at N32 as it declined by 5.60 per cent while Oando shed 4.92 per cent to close at N4.83 per share.

Livestock Feeds closed at 62 kobo, following a decline of 4.62 per cent and UAC- Properties recorded a decline of 4.60 percent to close at N1.66 per share.

On the gainers table, Transcorp Hotels led with 10.04 per cent to close at N5.04, Air Service grew 4.84 per cent to close at N3.25, while Forte Oil increased 4.44 per cent to close at N47 per share.

Champion Breweries came fourth on the gainers table with an appreciation of 4.39 per cent to close at N2.38 per share and Transnational Express added 4.21 per cent to close at 99 kobo per share.

Top traded stocks by volume on  Wednesday were Custodian and Allied Insurance with the sale of 284.5 million units worth N954.9 million, Continental Reinsurance was next with 250.7 million units at N413.3 million, while Diamond Bank was third with 127.3 million units, worth N105 million.

United bank for Africa (UBA) came forth by trading 21.6 million units of its shares valued at N120.7 million while FBN Holdings transacted 12.6 million shares worth N38.6 million.