By Chinwendu Obienyi
Equities on the domestic bourse ended the last trading day of July with an over-hang of Friday’s decline as the NSE All Share Index (ASI), the key benchmark index dropping 2.77 per cent to settle at 35,844 basis points.
This was so because market capitalisation dropped by N352 billion to N12.354 trillion as heavy profit taking particularly from the industrial and banking sectors contributed to the market’s downturn as well as investors’ reaction to latest earnings from FBN Holdings.
Consequently, analysis on the price performance chart showed that 27 equities declined while 23 others advanced.
Leading the day’s losers were Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) with a loss of 9.65 per cent at a close of N8.33 per share. Dangote Cement and Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) followed with a loss of 4.99 percent each to close at N223.75 and N39.05per share respectively
On the flip side, Dangote Sugar Plc led the gainers with a growth of 10.22 per cent to close at N11.97 per share while Nascon Allied Plc followed with 10.15 per cent gain to close at N10.42 per share. Similarly CI Leasing gained 8.70 per cent to close at 75 kobo per share.
FCMB topped the day’s volume drivers, trading 127.61 million shares worth N154.2 million. FBN Holdings followed with 58.3 million shares valued at N347.2 million, while Transcorp traded 49.7 million shares worth N72.5 million.
The market closed with a turnover of 490.16 million shares worth N5.26 billion traded by investors in 5,558 deals.