MTN, Zenith, First Bank  Drag Investors into the Red Zone

MTN Nigeria led losers on Thursday as market rout continues across the Nigerian Stock Market.

The market capitalisation of listed equities depreciated further by N1 billion from N12.86 trillion on Wednesday to N12.85 trillion on Thursday.

While the NSE All-Share Index dipped by 0.12 percent from 24,655.05 basis points on Wednesday to 24,625.24 on Thursday.

Investors traded 130.279 million shares valued at N1.624 billion in 3,413 transactions during the trading hours of Thursday. This was lower than the 189.253 million shares worth N1.917 billion that exchanged hands in 3,364 deals on Wednesday.

In terms of volume traded, Zenith Bank led with 18.953 million shares worth N308.379 million. Transcorp followed with 16.064 million shares worth N11.267 million.

First Bank of Nigeria Holding Plc recorded 9.932 million traded shares valued at N52.511 million on Thursday. Mbenefit and Guinness added 6.944 million shares and 6.427 million shares worth N1.506 million and N96.647 million, respectively.

Top Gainers

Neimeth emerged top gainer with 9.65 percent profit to close at N1.25 per share. Wema Bank followed with a 9.09 percent gain to settle at 60 kobo.

Maybaker, ETI and FCMB added 3.09 percent, 2.13 percent and 1.67 percent to close at N3, N4.8 and N1.88 per share, respectively.

Top Losers

On the flip side, LinkAssure led losers in terms of percentage. Declined by 9.43 percent to settle 48 kobo a share. Livestock followed with 2.86 decline to close at 68 kobo per share.

Zenith Bank, First Bank and MTN Nigeria added 1.52 percent, 0.94 percent and 0.42 percent to close at N16.15 per share, N5.25 per share and N117.5 per share, respectively.