On Wednesday, the bears were dominant on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd., with market capitalisation declining further by N193 billion.

Specifically, the capitalisation, which opened at N20.830 trillion, dipped N193 billion to close at N20. 637 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index lost 367.97 points or 0.92 per cent to close at 39,433.81 from 39,801.78 on Tuesday.

Consequently, month-to-date and year-to-date losses increased to 0.9 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively.

The price depreciation was sustained by a sell-off in Stanbic IBTC Holdings and 21 other stocks.

The loss was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks, including Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Unilever Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank and Julius Berger.

Analysts at Afrinvest Ltd. attributed the development to rising yields in fixed income securities.

“We expect the market performance to remain bearish in the next trading session, as investors continue to take position in the fixed income space due to rising yields,” they said.

The stock market recorded 16 gainers in contrast with 22 losers.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent to close at N45 per share.

Computer Warehouse Group followed with 9.61 per cent to close at N2.07, while Unilever lost 8.21 per cent to close at N12.30 per share.

Courteville Business Solutions lost eight per cent to close at 23k, while International Breweries shed 7.02 per cent to close at N5.30 per share.

On the other hand, Lasaco Assurance drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.62 per cent to close at N1.71 per share.

Linkage Assurance trailed with 9.43 per cent to close at 58k, while Caverton Offshore Support Group went up by 9.09 per cent to close at N1.92 per share.

Sterling Bank garnered 8.11 per cent to close at N1.60, while Regency Alliance Insurance gained 6.67 per cent to close at 32k per share.

Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 71.29 million shares valued at N523.78 million.

Access Bank followed with 40.88 million shares worth N309.95 million, while Ekocorp traded 40 million shares valued at N235.99 million.

Zenith Bank sold 25.03 million shares worth N544.35 million, while the United Bank of Africa transacted 18.05 million shares worth N130.31 million.

In all, the total volume of shares traded dropped by 18 per cent to 349.56 million shares valued at N3.50 billion in 4,554 deals.

This was against a total of 426.51 million shares worth N4.65 billion transacted in 5,616 deals on Tuesday.