By Omodele Adigun
LAST week was not the best of times for the stocks in the Building Materials sector as three of them topped the decliners’ table with over 14 per cent drop in the share price of Ashaka Cement Plc to lead the group.
At the close of business on Friday, the trio of Ashaka Cement, Portland Paints & Products and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria fell by 14.21 per cent, 14.06 per cent and 13.95 per cent in that order to close at N19.56,N2.75 and N7.03 respectively.
Meanwhile, a turnover of 1.111 billion shares worth N6.201 billion were traded in 15,315 deals during the week. This was in contrast to a total of 1.262 billion shares valued at N6.427 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 12,274 deals.
The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 950.921 million shares valuing N3.675 billion and done in 10,757 deals to account for 85.58 per cent and 59.25 per cent to the total equity volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 60.977 million shares worth N79.922 million in 591 deals. The third place was occupied by the Consumer Goods Industry with a turnover of 40.270 million shares worth N1.696 billion in 1,774 deals.
Trading in the top three equities : Guaranty Trust Bank, FCMB Group Plc and Equity Assurance Plc accounted for 362.484 million shares worth N2.02 billion in 1,942 deals, contributing 32.62 per cent and 32.57 per cent to the total equity turnover and value respectively.
As more share prices tumbled during the week, both the All-Share Index and Market Capitalization fell alongside by 0.70 per cent to close the week at 25,328.07 and N8.712 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all other Indices finished lower during the week, with the exception of the NSE Oil/Gas Index and the NSE Pension Index that rose by 0.24 per cent and 0.13 per cent respectively, while the NSE ASeM closed flat.
As for price movement, 27 equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than the 24 of the previous week. Forty share prices, on the other hand, fell as against the 37 equities of the previous week, while 122 equities had their prices unchanged.