By Providence Obuh
The declining trend on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) continued last week, as equities value represented by the market capitalisation dipped by 24.91 billion.

Specifically, the capitalisation declined by 0.40 per cent to close at N6.120 trillion from N6.145 trillion at which it opened penultimate week.

Meanwhile another key performance indices , the All share index dropped by 0.39 per cent or 99.03 bases points to close at 24,978.70 points from 25,077.73 points at which it opened.

Nestle Nigeria Plc led 43 other stocks on the losers’ table, dropping by N7.95 to close at N387.95 per share, Guinness Nigeria Plc followed with a loss of N5.13 to close at N180.00 per share, Cadbury Nigeria Plc dipped by  N4.00 to close at N29.00 per share.

Other share price losers include: Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc N3.40, Nigerian Bottling Company Plc  N2.01,
Unilever Nigeria Plc N1.71, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc N1.67,  African Petroleum Plc N1.58,
Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc N1.34, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated N1.27, among others.

Oando Plc led 40 other stocks on the gainers table rising with a gain of N3.00 to close at N66.00 per share, Conoil Plc followed with a gain of N2.40 to close at N39.79 per share and 7-Up Bottling Company Plc garnered N1.83 to close at N38.48 per share.

Other share price gainers’ include: Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc N1.60, Lafarge WAPCO Nigeria Plc N1.55, Okomu Oil Palm Plc N1.35, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc  N0.74, Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nigeria Plc N0.70, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc N0.54,
UACN Property Development Company Plc N0.51, among others.

A turnover of 1.55 billion shares valued at N18.1 billion was recorded in 29,062 deals, however, activities appreciated by 17.42 per cent in the week under review, compared to last week’s turnover of 1.32 billion shares valued at N11.53 billion  in 27,714 deals.

The Banking sub-sector was the most active on the sectorial analysis accounting for 59.81 per cent of the market turnover with  927.71 million shares worth N7.00 billion exchanged by investors in 16,261 deals.

First Bank of Nigeria Plc recorded the highest activity in the sub-sector trading 149.22 million shares valued at N1.98 billion in 3,763 deals, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc followed as 85 Million shares valued at N1.40 billion exchanged hands in 2,761 deals and United Bank for Africa Plc recorded 84.65 million shares valued at N835.65 million in 1,327 deals.

The Insurance sub-sector trailed on the sectorial analysis accounting for 9.87 per cent of the market turnover.