Nigerian stocks were weaker by 0.40 per cent on Monday as investors put huge volumes of industrial goods and oil and gas stocks up for sale, causing equities to shed about N100 billion in value.

Oando, Champion Breweries, Dangote Cement and Zenith led the retreat, even though there was a marked improvement in liquidity, with trade volume jumping by 29 per cent.

Market breadth was nevertheless positive as 21 gainers emerged against 18 losers.

The all-share index inched down by 158.98 points to 39,326.67, while market capitalisation dipped to N20.5 trillion.

The index has lost 2.34 per cent so far this year.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

Honeywell led the gainers, appreciating by 9.86 per cent to close at N3.90. UPDC went up by 9.84 per cent to N2.01. ABC Transport rose to N0.36, notching up 9.09 per cent in the process. Presco added 8.90 per cent to end the trade at N79.50. FTN Cocoa completed the top 5, climbing by 8.33 per cent to N0.52.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

Champion Breweries was the worst-performing stock, declining by 7.73 per cent to close at N2.03. Eterna slumped to N6.96, recording 7.20 per cent depreciation. Linkage Assurance shed 6.45 per cent to close at N0.58. Oando fell to N4.56, losing 5 per cent. Caverton closed at N1.76, going down by 4.86 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

Altogether 301 million shares estimated at N1.5 billion were traded in 4,715 deals.

Transcorp was the most active stock with 51.7 million units of its shares worth N46.8 million traded in 253 deals. Honeywell had 43.7 million units of its shares priced at N167.9 million exchange hands in 333 transactions. Consolidated Hallmark traded 17.6 million shares estimated at N10.6 million in 39 transactions. Oando had 16.1 million shares valued at N71.5 million traded in 243 deals. UPDC traded 15.1 million shares valued at N29.9 million in 165 deals.

PT