Major highly capitalised stocks on Friday posted price depreciation forcing the market indicators to close negatively.
Nestlé Nigeria recorded the highest price loss to lead the laggards’ table with a loss of N19. 99 to close at N680 per share.
The Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., Mr Ambrose Omordion, said that investors were selling Nestlé to reposition in low cap stocks that were likely to pay dividend.
Omordion attributed the development to the company’s dwindling earnings due to foreign exchange instability and other harsh economic policies.
Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N1.43 to close at N133.11 and UACN shed 79k to close at N15.20 and Guaranty Trust Bank shed 58k to close at N23.02 and Cadbury depreciated by 25k to close at N9.20 per share.
Consequently, the All-Share Index shed 133.70 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 25,802.54 against 25,936.24 recorded on Thursday.
Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N8.938tn lost N45bn or 0.52 per cent to close at N8.892tn.
On the other hand, Guinness led the gainers’ table increasing by N2.97 to close at N66.50 per share.
ETI followed with a gain of 15k to close at N10.30 and Union Bank of Nigeria garnered 6k to close at N5 per share.
United Capital increased by 5k to close at N3.55, while NPF Microfinance Bank also gained 5k to close at N1.13 per share.
Also, the volume of shares traded closed lower as investors bought and sold 144.63 million shares valued at N1.22bn exchanged in 2,350 deals, a decrease of 59.21 per cent.
This was in contrast with 354.56 million shares worth N1.72bn transacted in 2,760 deals on Thursday.
FBN Holdings was the most active, accounting for 34.26 million shares worth N120.20 million.
Staco Insurance sold 20 million shares valued at N10m, while GT Bank traded 18.19 million shares worth N423.25m.
Diamond Bank accounted for 13.98 million shares valued at N12.57m and Fidelity Bank sold 9.01 million shares worth N8.02m.
