Investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Tuesday lost N317bn in a trading session amid sell pressure on bellwethers, the News Agency of Nigeria reported.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N20.612tn shed N371bn or 1.80 per cent to close at N20.241tn.
Also, the All-Share Index dipped 709.72 points or 1.80 per cent to close at 38,686.85 from 39,396.57 achieved on Monday.
Accordingly, the month-to-date and year-to-date losses increased to 2.8 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are Lafarge Africa, United Bank for Africa, Greif Nigeria, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills and Zenith Bank.
Market sentiment remained negative with 21 losers compared with 15 gainers.
UBA led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N7.20 per share.
Caverton Offshore followed with a loss of 9.55 per cent to close at N1.80, while NNFM lost 9.52 per cent to close at N5.70 per share.
Greif lost 9.46 per cent to close at N6.70, while AXA Mansard Insurance shed 9.09 per cent to close at 90k per share.
On the other hand, Champion Breweries recorded the highest price gain of 9.78 per cent to close at N2.02 per share.
Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with 9.71 per cent to close at N1.92, while Mutual Benefits Assurance gained 8.11 per cent to close at 40k per share.
Dangote Sugar Refinery gained 7.99 per cent to close at N18.25 per share, while Associated Bus Company appreciated by 7.14 per cent to close at 30k per share.
In spite of the drop in market indices, the total volume of shares traded rose by 64.8 per cent with an exchange of 545.92 million shares worth N9.59bn achieved in 5,307 deals.
This was in contrast with a turnover of 297.23 million shares valued at N3.15bn transacted in 4,655 deals on Monday.
Transactions in the shares of UBA topped the activity chart with 123.27 million shares worth N887.63m.
Notore Chemical Industries followed with 74.07 million shares valued at N3.67 billion, while Mutual Benefits Assurance traded 58.04 million shares worth N23.19m.
– Punch