The bears have maintained their dominance on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as major highly capitalised stocks continue to witness price depreciation, causing investors’ wealth to plummet further by N804 billion in six trading days.

Specifically, the market capitalisation of the NSE, which opened the year at N9,757 trillion on Monday, January 1, 2016, dropped to N8,953 trillion as at yesterday, representing a decrease of N804 billion while the All-share index slides by 8.9 per cent from 28,370.32 to 26,034.93.

Yesterday, 32 stocks depreciated in price while eight less capitalised ones constituted the gainers chart.

Precisely, Livestock led the losers chart with 8.96 per cent to close at N0.12 per share while Tigerbrands followed with 8.51 per cent to close at N0.86 per share. Nigerian Aviation Handling Company and UAC-Properties shed 5.00 per cent to close at N3.42 and N5.51 per share respectively.

Cadbury lost 4.97 per cent to close at N15.49 per share. Zenith Bank shed 4.96 per cent to close at N12.08 per share.

Oando dropped 4.87 per cent to close at N4.88 per share. PZ Cussons lost 4.86 per cent to close at N21.13 per share.

TransNational Corporation shed 4.80 per cent to close at N1.19 per share. Berger paints lost 4.76 per cent to close at N10.00 per share.

Other losers of yesterday’s transactions include; Diamond, NEM, LawUnion&Rock , dropping 4.74,4.41 and 4.29 per cent to close at N2.01,N0.65  and N0.67 per share.
Vono lost 4.17 per cent to close at N0.92 per share. African Prudential shed 4.08 per cent to close at N2.35 per share.

On the other hand, May&Baker led seven others on the gainers chart with 5.00 per cent to close at N1.05 per share. Champion followed with 4.97 per cent to close at N3.38 per share.

Eternaoil gained 4.97 per cent to close at N1.69 per share. Portland Paints added 4.82 per cent to close at N4.13 per share.

TransNational Express added 3.60 per cent to close at N1.15 per share. Learn Africa gained 2.35 per cent to close at N0.87 per share.

Access Bank added 1.10 per cent to close at N4.60 per share. International Breweries also gained 0.06 per cent to close at N15.75 per share.

The banking subsector remains the most active stock in volume terms with 140 million shares worth N1.7 billion while the insurance subsector followed with 22 million units valued at N16 million.

The banking sub sector was boosted by activities in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank with 91 million shares worth N1.6 billion while United Bank for Africa followed with 17 million units valued at N53 million.

On the whole, investors exchanged 233 million shares worth N2.5 billion in 2,776 deals.