Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened on Monday on a bearish trend as the indices dropped marginally by 0.03 per cent.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the drop was due to profit-taking by investors.
The market capitalisation, as a result of the depreciation, lost N4 billion or 0.03 per cent to close at N12.848 trillion from the N12.853 trillion achieved on Friday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index, which opened at 39,018.24 dropped by 10.84 basis points to close lower at 39,007.40.
An analysis of the laggards’ chart indicated that National Salt Company of Nigeria led by 65k to close at N12.65 per share.
It was followed by FBN Holdings with a loss of 27k to close at N12.90, while MRS Oil declined by 23k to close at N51.49 per share.
PZ Cussons lost 20k to close at N35.30, while CAP dipped by 19k N38.51 per share.
On the other hand, Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ table by N1.45 to close at N164.50 per share.
Guinness gained N1 to close at N181, while Flour Mills improved by N1 to close at N69 per share.
Nestle gained 99k to close at N1,076 and Unilever advanced by 38k to close at N49.75 per share.
Also, the volume of shares traded dropped by 53.37 per cent with a total of 206.69 million shares worth N2.73 billion.
This is against the 443.22 million shares valued N3.76 billion transacted in 4,571 deals on Friday.
The banking stocks remained investors’ delight as Access Bank emerged the most active stock.
Access Bank exchanged 36.19 million shares worth N344.96 million.
Zenith followed with 29.68 million valued N686.78 million, while FBN Holdings traded 14.43 million shares worth N190.62 million.
Fidelity Bank sold 13.01 million shares worth N26.74 million and Universal Insurance accounted for 12.78 million shares valued N6.39 million.