Losses experienced in the FBN Holding Plc, Ecobank Transnational incorporated, and other financial services stocks dragged the local bourse by N257bn at the end of last week as the market capitalisation closed at N34.069tn.

The All-Share Index also dropped by 470.68 base points or 0.75 per cent to close at 62,569.73.

Ecobank Nigeria Limited and FBN Holdings are currently entangled over the recent acquisition of FBN Holdings shares by an entity associated with businessman, Oba Otudeko, a former chairman of the latter over an alleged unsettled debt of N13.5 bn.

Also, all other indices finished lower except for NGX Oil and Gas, NGX Lotus ll and NGX Industrial Goods Indices which appreciated by 1.43 per cent, 0.72 per cent and 9.01 per cent respectively, while the NGX ASeM and NGX Sovereign Bond Indices closed flat.

A total of 5,246 billion shares worth N63.417bn were traded in 57,234 deals by investors on the floor of the Exchange last week, compared to a total of 9,831 billion shares valued at N145.408bn that exchanged hands last week in 54,478 deals.  This indicated a 46.64 per cent drop in the volume of stocks traded last week compared to the previous one.

Leading the activity chart of the Nigerian Exchange Limited last week was the Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) with 3,494 billion shares valued at N38.032bn traded in 28,633 deals; contributing 66.60  per cent and 59.97  per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Conglomerates Industry followed with 451,410 million shares worth N2.186bn in 3,147 deals. The third place was the ICT Industry, with a turnover of 332.705 million shares worth N5.638bn in 4,207 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely United Bank for Africa, Transnational Corporation Plc and FBN Holding Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 1.222 billion shares worth N15.523bn in 8,260 deals, contributing ing 23.28 per cent and 24.48  per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Twenty-nine equities appreciated during the week lower than 78 equities in the previous week. Seventy-seven equities depreciated higher than 25 in the previous week, while 50 equities remained unchanged, lower than 53 recorded in the previous week.

Atop the gainers table was Daar Communications whose shares appreciated by 50 per cent to close at N0.30. John Holt gained 44.80 per cent to close at N1.81. Ahead of a proposed merger with Dangote Sugar Refinery and Dangote Rice, the stocks of Nascon Allied Industries Plc went up by 22.49 per cent to close at N28.05.

The shares of financial services dominated the losers table with the likes of FBN Holdings losing  22.17 per cent to close at N15.80, Ecobank stocks lost 23.03 per cent to close at N12.70, Wema bank lost 25.55 per cent in its share value to close at N4.05, Sterling Holdco lost 25.42 per cent to close at N3.11, Fidelity bank stocks suffered a 24.97 per cent dip to close at N6.70. Amidst reports of proposed expansion into several African countries, the shares of Access Holdings depreciated by 20.27 per cent to close at N14.95.