Trading at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd. started the week on Monday with a marginal loss of N9 billion.

Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened the week at N20.591 trillion shed N9 billion or 0.04 per cent to close at N20.582 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index dipped 16.94 points or 0.04 per cent to close at 39,505.40 from 39,522.34 on Friday.

Consequently, month-to-date and year-to-date return stood at 2.5 per cent and -1.9 per cent, respectively.

The market’s negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; CAP, Lafarge Africa, Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.

Analysts at United Capital Plc said that, “This week, we expect the market to rally on the back of incoming earnings releases of large-cap banking names.”

They added that sustained decline in fixed income yields could trigger favourable sentiment toward the equities market.

However, the market closed positively with 24 gainers as against 15 losers.

MRS Oil led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.92 per cent to close at N13.85 per share.

May and Baker followed with 9.77 per cent to close at N4.83, while Honeywell Flour Mill went up by 9.76 per cent to close at N2.25 per share.

Mutual Benefits Assurance rose by 8.82 per cent to close at 37k, while FTN Cocoa Processors gained 6.82 per cent each to close at 47k per share.

On the other hand, Associated Bus Company led the laggards’ chart in percentage terms by 8.33 per cent to close at 33k per share.

Lasaco Assurance followed with 6.67 per cent to close at N1.40, while Livestock Feeds was down by 4.81 per cent to close at N1.98 per share.

Fidelity Bank lost 4.80 per cent to close at N2.38, while Champion Breweries shed 4.55 per cent to close at N2.10 per share.

Also, the total volume of trades declined by 25.2 per cent to 141.28 billion units valued at N1.64 billion exchanged in 3,393 deals.

This was in contrast with 188.84 million shares worth N3.22 billion achieved in 3,267 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of eTranzact International Plc topped the activity chart with 16.188 million shares valued at N33.348 million.

Fidelity Bank followed with an exchange of 10.44 million shares worth N24.33 million, while Transcorp traded 9.77 million shares valued at N9.28 million.

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance sold 9.18 million shares worth N4.41 million, while Access Bank transacted 7.59 million shares valued at N69.03 million.