The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) market continued its bearish trend as the bourse bowed to the bears, recorded a 0.22% decline in the value of the All-share index to close at 26,974.38 index points, recording 11 gainers and 16 decliners in Wednesday’s trade.
While the market recorded trades in 228.38 million units of shares at N2.74 billion, the equity market capitalization shed N26 billion to close at N14.06 trillion from an opening value of N14.08 trillion.
The bearish performance could be attributed to decline recorded in medium and large capitalized stocks such as MTN Nigeria, Vitafoam Nigeria, First Bank Holdings and African Prudential.
Top gainers
Honey well Flour was the best performing stock, having recorded 9.38% gain to close at N1.05 followed by FCMB, which gained 6.29% to close at N1.86 while Ekocorp Plc gained 5.77% to close at N5.5. UBA recorded 4.38% gain to close at N7.15 while Lasaco Assurance rounded off the list with 4.17% gain to close at N0.25.
[READ MORE: Investors lose N181.08 billion as bourse bow to bears on Monday)
Top losers
Redstar Express and Vitafoam Nigeria Plc led the ranks of decliners as they dipped 9.98% to close at N3.61 and N4.06 respectively. University Press recorded 9.6% decline to close at N1.13, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance shed 9.38% to close at N0.29 while Jaiz bank rounded off the list with 8.62% loss to close at N0.53.
Top trades by volume
The list of actively traded stocks on the floor of the Stock market was led by UBA with trades recorded in 81.12 million units of shares valued at N548.9 million across 579 deals followed by Zenith Bank Plc, which traded in 31.01 million units of shares at N590.32 million across 640 transactions.
Access Bank traded 22.34 million units of shares valued at N201.05 million in 124 deals, Transnational Corporation recorded trades in 12.46 million units of shares at N11.24 million across 42 deals while United Capital Plc capped the list with trades in 11.45 million units of shares at N37.92 million across 195 deals.