Profit taking: NSE market capitalisation drops further by N42bn

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday maintained a negative slide with the market indices dropping further by 0.46 per cent following continuous profit taking by investors.
The market capitalisation, for the second trading day, lost N42 billion or 0.46 per cent to close at N9.116 trillion compared with N9.158 trillion recorded on Tuesday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index shed 121.85 points or 0.46 per cent to close at 26,495.04, against 26,616.89 achieved on Tuesday.
An analysis of the price movement table showed that Guaranty Trust Bank led the laggards’ chart, shedding N1.10 to close at N22.90 per share.
Lafarge Africa came second with a loss of 95k to close at N40 and Forte Oil was down by 62k to close at N83.60 per share.
Ashaka Cement dipped 59k to close at N11.43, while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated declined by 23k to close at N9.54 per share.
The volume of shares traded closed lower with an exchange of 602.05 million shares valued at N1.20 billion transacted in 2,150 deals.
This was against the 3.37 billion shares worth N3.76 billion traded in 2,033 deals on Tuesday.
Unity Kapital maintained its leadership as the most traded in volume terms with a total of 435.96 million shares worth N335.69 million.
Omoluabi Savings and Loans followed with 104.00 million shares valued at N83.30 million, while UBA accounted for 9.23 million shares worth N41.67 million.
United Capital sold 6.71 million shares valued at N19.43 million and GT Bank traded 5.21 million shares worth N120.62 million.
Conversely, Flour Mills Nigeria led the gainers’ table growing by 49k to close at N18.49 per share.
Zenith Bank followed with a gain of 19k to close at N14.55 and UAC Property rose by 13k to close at N2.88 per share.
Vitafoam increased by 12k to close at N2.54 and Africa Prudential Registrars garnered 9k to close at N3 per share.