The Nigerian Stock market started the week on a bearish trend, as investors lost a total of N181.08 billion on Monday. This loss came after the market capitalization, which opened at N14.278 trillion dipped 1.27% to close at N14.097 trillion, indicating N181.078 billion loss in one day.
The development could be attributed to some equity investors that sold their shares in fear of the consistent decline being recorded in recent weeks. Sell-offs recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks affected the performance of the market significantly.
Stocks such as Julius Berger, Zenith bank, GTBank, Nigerian Breweries, BUA Cement, First Bank Holdings and Cadbury recorded significant losses while the bourse recorded a total of 33 decliners and only 5 gainers.
The major market indicator dipped 1.27% to close at 27,041.03 index points having recorded 4,533 deals and traded 429 million units of shares valued at N7.298 billion.
[READ MORE: Investors channel funds to forex, equity after OMO ban- Report)
Top gainers
Law Union Insurance was the best performing stock with 9.59% gain to close at N0.8 followed by Linkage Assurance which gained 4.65% to close at N0.45 and May & Baker, having gained 2.75% to close at N1.87. Sterling Bank joined the list with 2.74% gain to close at N1.5 while Vitafoam rounded off the list with 0.22% gain to close at N4.51.
Top losers
A long list of decliners saw BOC Gases, Glaxo Smith Kline and NCR Plc lead the ranks of losers on Monday with 10% loss to close at N4.05, N4.5 and N2.43 respectively. Skyway Aviation Handling lost 9.92% to close at N2.36 while Red Star Express rounded off the list with 9.89% loss to close at N4.01.
Top trades by volume
GTBank was the most actively traded stock on the floor of the stock market on Monday as it traded in 177.13 million units of shares, valued at N4.79 billion across 342 deals. These trades accounted for 65.67% of the total value of shares traded on the bourse today.
First Bank Holdings followed with trades in 60.1 million units of shares at N329.46 million across 382 deals as Zenith Bank Plc traded 58.15 million units of shares at N1,09 billion across 993 transactions. UBA traded in 39.17 million units of shares at N267.21 million across 443 deals while United Capital rounded off the list with 18.48 million units of shares valued at N62.99 million across deals.
