At the end of the day’s trading session on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the market lost N324bn as the benchmark All-Share Index shed 512.60 points, representing a 0.36 per cent decline to close at 141,248.76. This brought the year-to-date gain to 37.23 per cent despite the reversal in the day’s trading.

A total of 682,854,714 shares were traded in 28,651 deals, valued at N22.22bn, marking a 13 per cent improvement in volume and a 72 per cent increase in turnover compared with the previous trading day. The NGX currently has a market capitalisation of N89.4tn.

In total, 127 listed equities participated in trading, with 17 gainers and 40 losers. Cornerstone Insurance Company topped the losers’ chart with a 10 per cent depreciation, closing at N6.39 per share, followed by RT Briscoe with a 10 per cent loss, Associated Bus Company with 9.8 per cent and Nigerian Exchange Group with 9.7 per cent. On the other hand, Deap Capital Management & Trust led the gainers with a 4.82 per cent increase, closing at N1.74, while Legend Internet rose 4.63 per cent, Honeywell Flour Mill gained 4.17 per cent and Tantalizers increased by 3.6 per cent.

FCMB Group recorded the highest trading volume of 108 million shares, followed by Sterling Bank with 86 million, Cutix with 45.8 million and Access Holdings with 39.3 million. By value, Aradel topped with N4.1bn, followed by Seplat with N2.62bn, BUA Foods with N1.25bn, Nestle with N1.28bn and FCMB with N1.19bn.

Among market indices, the Top 30 Index declined 0.27 per cent, while the Oil & Gas Index rose 0.18 per cent. The Premium Index was unchanged, and the Main Board Index lost 0.56 per cent.

The market’s decline reflects a shift in investor sentiment, with profit-taking and sectoral losses outweighing the gains seen earlier in the week.

The PUNCH reported that the Nigerian Exchange extended its bullish momentum on Tuesday as investors gained N203bn, pushing the market capitalisation to N89.7tn at the close of trading. The benchmark All-Share Index rose by 321.59 points, or 0.23 per cent, to settle at 141,761.36 compared with 141,439.77 recorded on Monday. This brought the market’s year-to-date gain to 37.73 per cent, despite posting a one-week decline of 0.6 per cent.