On Tuesday, trading activities on the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) ended on a negative note as the capitalisation dropped by N1.11 trillion.

The market capitalisation, which opened at N57.560 trillion, shed N1.11 trillion, or 1.93 per cent, to close at N56.447 trillion.

The All-Share Index closed at 1.93 per cent or 1,969 points to settle at 99,808.34, as against 101,777.12 recorded on Monday.

As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 33.48 per cent.

The market’s declining performance was driven by sell-offs in telecommunications heavyweights, such as MTN Nigeria, alongside Tier-one banking stocks, namely Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and FBN Holdings, Access Corporation and Zenith Bank, as Dangote Sugar, among other decliners.

Meanwhile, the market breadth closed negative with 27 losers and seven gainers on the trading floor.

On the losers log, Cornerstone Insurance, Ellah Lakes, Fidelity Bank, Japaul Gold Group, and Vitafoam Nigeria led in percentage terms by 10 each to close at N1.71, N3.15, N8.10, N1.80, and N18.90 per share, respectively.

Conversely, Morison Industries Plc led the gainers table by 9.96 per cent to close at N3.09, and Thomaswy trailed by 8.63 per cent to close at N2.14 per share.

Universal Insurance also rose by 5.56 per cent to close at 38k, Omatek added 3.80 per cent to close at 82k, while Secure Electronic Technology Plc advanced by 3.45 per cent to close at 60k per share.

However, analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 16.91 per cent.

A total of 403.89 million shares valued at N8.38 billion were exchanged in 10,170 deals, compared to 326.64 million shares valued at N7.17 billion exchanged in 10,777 deals.

Access Corporation led the activity chart with 62.93 million shares traded, worth N1.07 billion. GTCO followed with 47.38 million shares worth N1.74 billion to lead the chart in value.

United Bank of Africa(UBA) sold 45.63 million shares valued at N1.10 billion, Zenith Bank transacted 41.36 million shares worth N1.50 billion, and Fidelity Bank traded 23.14 million shares worth N189.36 million.

(NAN)