By Chinwendu Obienyi
Equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ended in red on Friday as the All Share Index slipped by 0.33 per cent to close at 42,898.90 points from 43,041.54 points recorded in the previous session.
The upbeat across the four major counters also came to a halt as the market capitalization closed at N15.37 trillion from N15.32 trillion.
At the close of trading, 31 stocks declined while 30 stocks advanced.
Zenith Bank topped the losers chart with 5.30 per cent to close at N31.26 per share. WAPIC and Flourmills both shed 5.00 per cent each to close at 57 kobo and N31.35 respectively, ETI fell by 4.99 per cent to close at N19.03 while May and Baker depreciated by 4.91 per cent to close at N3.10 per share.
On the other hand, CCNN topped the gainers chart by 10.22 per cent to close at N13.26 per share. Honey well Flour followed with a 10.00 per cent gain to close at N3.52, Sterling Bank appreciated by 9.77 per cent to close at N1.91, Skye Bank added 9.09 per cent to close at 0.84 kobo while Linkage Assurance rose by 8.43 per cent to close at 0.90 kobo per share.
Overall, the total volume of stocks traded stood at 1.39 billion shares worth N14.24 billion which changed hands in 11,385 deals compared with 1.16 billion shares worth N17.38 billion in 8,968 deals in Thursday’s trading session.
Transcorp remained unchallenged as the most actively traded stock, transacting 222.90 million shares worth N500.12 million. Diamond Bank was next with the sale of 153.46 million shares worth N418.32 million, while FBN Holdings sold 133.41 million shares valued at N1.58 billion.