Some major blue chips on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday recorded further price depreciation as a result of profit taking by investors and end of the year effects.

Nestle topped the price losers’ chart, dropping N40.77 to close at N774.78 per share.

Seplat lost N17.09 to close at N324.83, while Forte Oil depreciated by N11.50 to close at N218.50 per share.

Nigerian Breweries went down by N8.06 to close at N153.25, while Mobil Oil dipped by N7.95 to close at N151.05 per share.

The All-Share Index lost 3.54 per cent to close at 31,062.03 against 32,203.62 recorded on Wednesday.

The market capitalisation dipped by N376 billion or 3.54 per cent to close at N10.255 trillion from the N10.631 trillion achieved on Wednesday.

On the other hand, 7UP led the price gainers’ table with N1.85 to close at N153.85 per share.

Betaglas followed with a gain of N1.15 to close at N24.30, while ETI grew by 15k to close at N18.20 per share.

Etranzact also gained 12k to close at N2.55, while Airservice appreciated by 0.08k to close at N1.73 per share.

In all, investors staked N5.61 billion on 374.705 million shares in 4,258 deals in contrast to the 376.202 million shares worth N6.66 billion traded in 4,230 deals on Wednesday.

The financial services sector remained the investors’ delight as Diamond Bank emerged the most active equity with 73.37 million shares worth N359.53 million traded in 119 deals.

GTBank came second with 46.26 million shares valued at N1.04 billion in 415 deals, while Zenith Bank sold 27.08 million shares worth N476.77 million in 251 deals.