The Nigerian equities market halted its previous positive outing to close on a negative note for the first time in the year due to sell pressure on some blue chips.

Specifically, the market capitalisation on Tuesday shed N20 billion to close at N23.630 trillion from N23.650 trillion achieved on Monday.

Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 43,897.13 lost 37.83 points or 0.09 per cent to close at 43,859.30.

Accordingly, the year-to-date return moderated to 2.7 per cent.

The negative performance of the market was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are: Nestle, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Cement, Nigerian Exchange Group (NGXGroup) and Berger Paints Nigeria.

Market sentiment was negative with 26 laggards relative to 17 gainers.

Mutual Benefits Assurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 per cent to close at 27k per share.

Berger Paints followed with 9.94 per cent to close at N7.70, while UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust lost 8.14 per cent to close at N3.95 per share.

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Nestle dipped 7.81 per cent to close at N1,435, while Unity Bank shed 6.12 per cent to close at 46k per share.

On the other hand, BUA Foods led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 10 per cent to close at N64.35 per share.

Eterna followed with 5.09 per cent to close at N5.57, while Union Bank of Nigeria rose by 4.63 per cent to close at N5.65 per share.

Wema Bank improved by 3.57 per cent to close at 87k, while Oando appreciated by 2.83 per cent to close at N4.73 per share.

However, the total volume of trades decreased by 5.4 per cent to 294.54 million units valued at N6.77 billion in 4,501 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 311.26 million shares worth N8.64 billion achieved in 5,159 deals on Monday.

Transactions in the shares of Transcorp topped the activity chart with 58.36 million shares valued at N57.36 million.

BUA Foods followed with 51.53 million shares worth N3.32 billion, while FBN Holdings traded 16.51 million shares valued at N197.30 million.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company traded 14.05 million shares valued at N358.21 million, while Access Bank transacted 13.34 million shares worth N126.75 million.

TheStar