Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened on Monday for the week on a downward trend with the All-Share Index dropping by 0.37 per cent after appreciating for five consecutive days.
The index which opened at 27,116.45 lost 100.48 points to close at 27,015.97.
Also, market capitalisation lost N35 billion or 0.38 per cent to close at N9.28 trillion compared with N9.31 trillion recorded on Friday.
Mr Ambrose Omordion, Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the decline to investors’ anticipation of interest rate hike at the end of ongoing Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.
Omordion said that some traders embarked on profit taking due to speculation that the rate would be increased to 13 per cent or above.
A breakdown of the losers’ chart showed that Nestle recorded the highest loss, dropping by N2.50 to close at N730 per share.
It was followed by PZ which lost N1.14 to close at N21.81per share, while Zenith Bank lost 78k to close at N15.17 per share.
Nigerian Breweries dropped 70k to close at N125.30 per share and Union Dicon Salt lost 65k to close at N12.52 per share.
Conversely, Stanbic IBTC topped the gainers’ table with a gain of N1.53 to close at N16.54 per share.
UACN came second with 69k to close at N19.50 per share, while Dangote Sugar garnered 30k to close at N6.60 per share.
NAHCO improved by 20k to close at N4.56 and Fidson gained 10k to close at N2.10 per share.
United Bank for Africa was the most active, exchanging 58.54 million shares worth N252.42 million.
It was trailed by Transcorp, which accounted for 37.41 million shares valued at N44.41 million, while Zenith Bank sold 35.37 million shares worth N539.72 million.
FCMB Group exchanged 33.26 million shares valued at N45.63 million and FBN Holdings traded 26.94 million shares worth N101.96 million.
In all, investors staked N1.91 billion on 316.74 million shares, which were exchanged in 3,924 deals.
Monday’s transactions were in contrast with 559.08 million shares valued at N3.59 billion transacted in 4,902 deals on Friday.
