The equity market on Thursday took a further dip, losing N671 billion due to sell-offs in Dangote Cement and tier-one banking stocks.

The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) market capitalisation dropped by N671 billion, or per cent, closing at N55.777 trillion, down from N56.448 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index declined by 1.19 per cent to settle at 97,064.42, compared to 98,232.39 recorded on Wednesday. As a result, the Year-To-Date return fell to 29.81 per cent.

Losses in Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings and Transnational Corporation, among others, drove the market into negative territory.

Market breadth ended negative, with 28 stocks declining and 23 gaining.

Dangote Cement and McNichols led the losers’ table by 10 per cent each to close at N478.80 and N1.35 per share, respectively.

Secure Electronic Technology Plc followed by 7.58 per cent to close at 61k, UPDC Real Estate Investment lost 4.72 per cent to close at N5.05 per share.

Computer Warehouse Group also dropped 4.62 per cent to close at N6.20 per share.

Conversely, Seplat led the gainers table by 10 per cent to close at N4,513.40, and Livestock Feed Plc trailed by 9.93 per cent to close at N2.99 per share.

Regency Alliance Insurance gained 9.76 per cent to close at 90k, Caverton rose by 9.63 per cent to close at N2.39, and Axa Mansard added 7.82 to close at N5.93 per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower, relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 20.02 per cent.

Investors traded 268.39 million shares valued at N6.76 billion in 8,565 deals, compared with 425.76 million shares at N8.45 billion in 11,954 deals posted in the previous session.

On the activity chart, United Bank for Africa (UBA) led in volume with 37.09 million, while Seplat Energy led in value with deals worth N2.34 billion.

(NAN)