Lagos — Losses recorded in the shares of 34 companies,especially those of Mobil, and food manufacturing major, Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), yesterday pushed the primary equity performance indicators back to the negative region.

At the end of transaction , Mobil Oil which topped the losers' chart, dropped by N2.75k to close at N96.50k after netting a total turnover of 152,915 shares valued at N14.7 million in 26 deals.

NBC, which ranked second on the losers' table, lost N1 to close at N19.14k per share. It traded a total of 154,079 shares valued at N2.95 million exchanged in 18 deals.

Consequently, total equity capitalisation nose-dived by N17 billion or 0.33 per cent to close at N5.047 trillion, from the previous N5.064 trillion. Similarly, the all share index declined by the same margin from Monday's 21,466.54 points to close at 21,395.04 basis points yesterday.

Other price losers on the top five categories include: First bank Nigeria Plc 73k, Cadbury 63k and John Holt 51k per share.Conversely, 32 companies emerged gainers in the day, with Ashakacem leading the whole lot with 51k increase to close at N13.51k per share, followed by African Petroleum with 650k gain to close at N33.51k per share.

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) ranked third on the gainers' table, rising by 33k to close at N6.95k and N7.10k per share respectively, while Access Bank which closed the list of top five gainers, added 239K to close at N7 per share.

yesterday's downturn also affected the activity chart with the volume of transactions slumping by 314.7 million ordinary shares, from 688.2 million shares worth N2.3 billion in 5,308 deals on Monday, to 373.5 million shares valued at N3.6m billion exchanged in 5,783 deals, representing 45.7 per cent decrease.

The banking sub-sector however, emerged the most traded sub-sector, accounting for 254.7 million shares worth N2.65 billion, exchanged in 3,255 deals, followed by the insurance sub-sector with 41.96 million shares, worth N40.44 million, done in 399 deals. The conglomerate sub-sector closed as the third most traded sub-sector, with 17.89 million shares valued at N56.76 million in 319 deals.

First Bank buoyed activity in the banking sub-sector with 118.21 million shares valued at N1.7 billion in 763 deals, followed by Skye Bank with traded volume of 20.4 million shares worth N125.98 million , exchanged in 166 deals. Cornerstone Insurance emerged investors' toast in the insurance sub-sector, netting 9.01 million shares valued at NM5.7 million done in 27 deals, while Custodian Alliance Insurance followed with 5.12 million shares valued at N15.78 million, in 20 deals. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria was the most active in the conglomerate sub-sector, with 15.7 million shares valued at N8.35 million exchanged by investors in 111 deals.