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Heavy trading in the shares of Investment and Allied Assurance(IAA) Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Plc boosted activity on the Lagos floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange(NSE) Thursday as they accounted for more than 50 per cent of the day’s transaction.

With the combined volume of 340.2 million shares, the duo accounted for 50.6 per cent of the turnover which stood at 671.9 million shares worth N9.33 billion exchanged by the investors in 18,203 deals.On individual basis, IAA investors grabbed 230.7 million shares to top the activity chart in the Insurance subsector, while First Bank recorded 109.5 million shares to lead in the Banking sub-sector.

In all, the insurance stocks still topped the priority list of the investors who pumped in about N504.3 million to acquire 322.3 million shares in 2,561 deals.It was followed by the banking subsector with 243.07 million shares valuing N6.95 billion done in 10,663 deals.

Just as the market volume crashed from the previous day’s level of 903.2 million shares so also were the indicators.The All Share Index was down by 1.9 per cent to close at 50,070.30 points from 51,058.51 , while the maket capitalisation dropped about N1billion to close at N10.2 trillion.It opened for business at N10.3 trillion.

The drop in the performance indices was due to the long list of the losers which stood at 52 as against 27 gainers.
Leading the advancers was BOC Gases with 105 kobo to wrap up its price at N22.05 per share.It was followed by Guinness, Dangote Sugar, Prestige Assurance and First Inland Bank with 55 kobo, 48 kobo,43 kobo and 33 kobo to close at N121.55, N27.98, N9.25 and N7.34 respectively.

On the top 10 list were also Diamond Bank, WAPIC and Zenith Bank with 30 kobo,28 kobo and 25 kobo to close at N14.50,N8.27 and N40.90 in that order.The rest were International Breweries and Access Bank with 23 kobo and 22 kobo to close at N4.98 and N15 respectively.

On the losers’ group,Oando was the chief loser for the day as its price fell by 300 kobo to close at N166 per share. It was trailed by CAP,Cadbury, Flourmill and Unilever with 283 kobo,149 kobo, 139 kobo and 122 kobo to close at N53.88, N31.01, N63.05 and N23.18 respectively. Following them were Afribank,UACN and PZ in the top 10 ladder with 119 kobo, 100 kobo and 99 kobo to close at N23.79,N45 and N22.05 respectively.The rest were NAHCo and Skye Bank with 85 kobo and 74 kobo to close at N18.02 and N14.21 respectively.