Lagos — Investors' apathy for activities on the stock market persisted yesterday with further decline in share prices of almost all the quoted companies, especially the blue chips.

At the close of transactions, the twin equity performance indicators- market capitalisation and the All-share index dipped by 0.9 per cent each to consolidate on the losses incurred on Monday.

Particularly, the market capitalisation of all listed equities fell by N46 billion to close at N4.95 trillion, while the All-share index dipped by 192.69 basis points to close 20,817.60 points.

They had opened at N4.99 trillion and 21,010.29 points respectively.

42 companies recorded share price depreciation during the day, compared with 21 that emerged gainers.

Food manufacturing company, Flour Mill Nigeria, led the losers' pack, dropping by N1.75k to close at N33.25k per share. UAC-Prop followed with N1.5k decrease to close at N20.7k, Benue Cement Company (BCC) ranked third with N1 loss to close at N42 per share, while Lafarge WAPCo lost 90k to close at N31.

Other share price losers include; UACN, Zenith Bank, Ashakacem and Incar Motors with 85k, 65k, 58k and 46k loss to close at N35.65k, N12.42k, N11.10k and N8.76k per share respectively.

On the other hand, PZ Cusson topped the gainers' chart with 57k gain to close at N25.36k, followed by Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) with 30k increase to close at N6.37k. Skye Bank garnered 27k to close at N5.73k, while Access Bank added 20k to close at N6.96k.

Other share price losers include; Afribank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Ikeja Hotel, and WAPIC Insurance with 10k, 6k, 5k and 4k to close at N2.22k, N7.1k, N1.18k and 89k per share in that order.

The banking sub-sector dominated transactions on the sectoral chart with 200.7 million shares worth N1.2 billion exchanged in 3,729 deals. The insurance sub-sector closed as the second most traded with 97.8 million shares valued at N60.5 million exchanged in 507 deals, while the Food/Beverage & Tobacco sub-sector ranked third with 14.97 million shares valued at N140.6 million in 628 deals.

Fidelity bank propelled transactions in the banking sub-sector with 28.2 million shares worth N64.5 million done in 59 deals, while FinBank followed with 25.7 million shares worth N17.3 million exchanged in 76 deals. Cornerstone Insurance led activity in the insurance sub-sector with traded volume of 70.5 million shares worth N40.5 million exchanged in 64 deals, while Dangote Flour Mills emerged the most active in the Food/Beverage sub-sector, accounting for 8.2 million units of shares worth N54.6 million exchanged in 291 deals.

On the whole, a total turnover of 363.5 million shares valued at N1.9 billion were recorded by investors in 6,707 deals.