Although the Nigerian Stock Exchange closed the week on a positive note, the market capitalisation of listed equities dropped by N82bn after falling for two straight days as investors increased profit-taking.
It was a four-day trading week as the Federal Government declared Friday (today) and Monday, April 17 as a public holiday in commemoration of the Easter celebrations.
The NSE market capitalisation stood at N8.827tn on Thursday, down from N8.909tn at the end of last week.
The NSE All-Share Index, which fell to 25,478.06 basis points on Tuesday from the 25,746.52 bps it closed at last week, increased to 25,510.01 bps on Thursday.
Similarly, all other indices finished lower during the week with the exception of the NSE ASeM Index that closed flat.
Following the recent gains recorded by some large cap stocks, capital market analysts had said profit-taking activities could constitute a drag on the performance of the stock market this week.
A total turnover of 1.191 billion shares worth N6.037bn in 11,820 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 786.176 million shares valued at N5.828bn that exchanged hands last week in 14,343 deals.
The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.014 billion shares valued at N3.070bn traded in 6,700 deals, thus contributing 85.07 per cent and 50.86 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
The consumer goods industry followed with 51.888 million shares worth N1.581bn in 2,025 deals, while the third place was occupied by conglomerates industry with a turnover of 47.517 million shares worth N66.904m in 542 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely, Fidelity Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Standard Trust Assurance Plc (measured by volume), accounted for 679.949 million shares worth N639.862m in 1,622 deals, contributing 57.06 per cent and 10.60 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
Thirteen equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than 36 equities of the previous week.
Thirty-seven equities depreciated in price, higher than 22 equities in the previous week, while 127 equities remained unchanged higher than 119 equities recorded in the preceding week.
This week, UNIC Insurance Plc was delisted from the Daily Official List of the Exchange and the shares of its holding company, UNIC Diversified Holdings Plc, listed in its place.
“This is to bring into effect a scheme of arrangement whereby the shareholders of UNIC receive equal number of shares in UDH as they previously held in UNIC, and UDH becomes a holding company of UNIC,” the NSE said.