The nation’s bourse maintained a bearish mood on Tuesday, extending the trading losses to seven consecutive sessions at the Nigerian stock market.

This was due to sustained profit-taking in Guaranty Trust Bank and 16 others.

It came as the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee members, at the end of the two-day meeting on Tuesday, voted to hold all policy variables at current levels.

Specifically, the committee decided to retain Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 11.5 per cent; maintain the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +100/-700bps, retain the Cash Reserve Ratio at 27.5 per cent, and retain liquidity ratio at 30.0 per cent.

At the stock market, the All-Share Index dipped 30.82 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 38,256.76 from 38.287.58 posted on Monday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation dropped N16 billion or 0.08 per cent to close at N19.940 trillion against N19.956 recorded on Monday.

The market downturn was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are Guaranty Trust Bank, Champion Breweries, Lasaco Assurance, FBN Holdings and AIICO Insurance.

“With the CBN’s retention of all monetary policy parameters at the just concluded MPC meeting, we expect to see some bargain hunting on fundamentally viable stocks in the next trading session,” analysts at Afrinvest Ltd said.

An analysis of the price movement table indicates that 17 stocks posted price depreciation, relative to 12 gainers.

Lasaco Assurances led the losers’ chart in percentage terms with 7.14 per cent to close at N1.43 per share.

Champion Breweries followed with 5.66 per cent to close at N2, while AIICO Insurance lost 4.96 per cent to close at N1.15 per share.

Chams lost 4.76 per cent to close at 20k, while AXA Mansard Insurance shed 4.44 per cent to close at 86k per share.

Conversely, C&I Leasing dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms gaining 9.85 per cent to close at N4.46 per share.

Royal Exchange trailed with 8.82 per cent to close at 74k, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance improved by 7.27 per cent to close at 59k per share.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals rose by 7.02 per cent to close at N1.83, while The Initiates gained 6.82 per cent to close at 47k per share.

Transactions in the shares of Courteville Business Solutions topped the activity chart with 36.85 million shares valued at N7.47 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 28.19 million shares worth N649.41 million, while Jaiz Bank traded 25.85 million shares valued at N14.83 million.

Chams sold 16.09 million shares worth N3.22 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 13.68 million shares valued at N21.81 million.

In all, the total volume of trades tansacted increased by 77.3 per cent to 250.204 million shares valued at N1.55 billion and achieved in 3,534 deals.

This was against 141.15 million shares worth N1.09 billion achieved in 3,566 deals on Monday. (NAN)