The Nigerian Exchange closed the last trading session of the week on a bearish note, as the equities market capitalisation declined by N48bn, reflecting sustained negative investor sentiment.

At the close of trading, the market capitalisation dropped to N70.5tn from the previous day’s N70.548tn, while the All-Share Index depreciated by 76.07 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 111,742.01 points.

Despite the decline in key indices, trading activity surged significantly. A total of 1.9bn shares valued at N64.15bn were exchanged in 18,653 deals  representing a 242 per cent increase in volume and a 274 per cent rise in turnover compared to the previous trading session.

Market breadth closed negative, with 27 gainers against 37 losers out of 128 listed equities that participated in the session.

Omatek Ventures Plc led the gainers’ chart with a 9.86 per cent rise to close at N0.78 per share, followed by Red Star Express (+9.62 per cent), Deap Capital (+9.38 per cent ), and Sovereign Trust Insurance (+9.09 per cent ). Other top gainers included May & Baker (+8.26 per cent ) and Cutix Plc (+6.88 per cent ).

On the losing side, Beta Glass Plc and NCR Nigeria both topped the chart with a 10 per cent decline each, closing at N232.65 and N6.57 respectively. Conoil Plc followed with a 9.99 per cent drop to close at N298.10, while Legend Internet lost 9.94 per cent to settle at N6.16.

In terms of volume, United Bank for Africa emerged as the most active stock, trading over 1.41bn shares. It was followed by United Capital with 66.8m shares, Access Holdings with 54m shares, and Fidelity Bank with 31.4m shares.

Sector performance was largely negative. The Banking Index dropped by 0.36 per cent, the Industrial Index fell by 0.16 per cent, and the Main Board Index declined by 0.33 per cent. However, the Premium Index gained 0.47 per cent, showing slight resilience among premium stocks.

Overall, the market posted a 1-week gain of 2.49 per cent, a 4-week gain of 5.37 per cent, and a year-to-date return of 8.56 per cent, indicating that despite short-term losses, long-term sentiment remains mildly positive.