The bears continued to dominate the domestic equities market on Tuesday, as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)’s All-Share Index dropped further by 0.08 per cent.

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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the index lost 23.38 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 27,547.56 compared with 27, 570.94 following sell-offs of tier-1 banking stocks.

Also, the market capitalisation of listed equities, which opened at N14.359 trillion, shed N12 billion or 0.08 per cent to close at N14.347 trillion.

Consequently, the month-to-date loss increased to 4.4 per cent, while the Year-to-Date gain moderated to 2.6 per cent.

On sector performance, the banking (-0.5%) and Consumer Goods (-0.01%) indices declined, while the insurance (+0.2%) index gained.

The Industrial Goods and Oil and Gas indices closed flat.

However, market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative with 13 losers, relative to 12 gainers.

Guaranty Trust Bank topped the losers’ chart, dropping by 15k to close at N28.95 per share.

Vitafoam also trailed with a loss of 15k to close at N4.55, while United Bank for Africa lost 15k to close at N7.55 per share.

FBN Holdings was down by 15k to close at N5.80, while Zenith Bank dipped 10k to close at N19.50 per share.

On the other hand, Stanbic IBTC led the gainers’ table, gaining 50k to close at N38.50 per share.

C & I Leasing followed with a gain of 40k to close at N5.80, while UAC Property gained 9k to close at 99k.

United Capital rose by 5k to close at N2.93, while NPF Micro Finance Bank added 5k to close at N1.20 per share.

Moreover, the total volume of trades transacted increased by 24.9 per cent to 168.07 million shares valued at N2.16 billion exchanged in 3,075 deals.

This was in contrast with 134.612 million shares worth N1.58 billion traded in 3,302 deals on Monday.

Zenith Bank was the most traded stock by volume and value with 48.99 million shares worth NN953.24 million, respectively.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed with an account of 17.07 million shares valued at N494.85 million, while United Capital traded 15.64 million shares worth N45.69 million.

Access Bank exchanged 12.83 million shares valued at N124.43 million, FBN Holdings sold a total of 10.31 million shares cost N60.39 million.