Equities free fall: NSE market indicators record 1.07% drop

Equities free fall continued on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday with major blue chips recording price loss, leading to 1.07 per cent drop in the market indices.
Trading on the nation’s bourse has maintained a negative trend since the market opened on Jan.3.
The All-Share Index lost 282.95 points or 1.07 per cent to close at 26,212.09 compared with 26,495.04 posted on Wednesday.
Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N9.116 trillion shed N98 billion or 1.07 per cent to close N9.018 trillion.
Malam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd., attributed the market development to lack of policy statement by the Federal Government.
Kurfi said that investors lack of encouraging policy pronouncement by the government had led to loss of confidence investor in the market.
Dangote Cement, one of the highly capitalised stock on NSE, topped the losers’ chart, dropping by N6.97 to N167.02 per share.
Guinness trailed with a loss of N4.15 to close at N78.90, while Forte Oil dipped N2.85 to close at N80.75 per share.
Stanbic IBTC lost 63k to close at N15 and NAHCO declined by 30k to close at N2.86 per share.
On the other hand, Beta Glass and CAP led the gainers’ table, growing by N1 each to close at N30 and N33 per share, respectively.
GT Bank gained 57k to close at N6.14, while Oando Plc appreciated by 24k to close at N4.54 per share.
Fidelity Bank was the toast of investors, with an exchange of 25.06 million shares worth N20.98 million.
Diamond Bank came second having accounted for 16.96 million shares valued at N15.25 million and United Capital sold 11.04 million shares worth N31.84 million.
Transcorp exchanged 10.93 million shares valued at N9.66 million, while UBA traded 9.70 million shares worth N44.79 million.
In all, investors staked N898.71 million on 137.69 million shares transacted in 2,488 deals against 602.05 million shares valued at N1.20 billion traded in 2,150 deals on Wednesday.