Bearish sentiments persisted at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday as losses in Zenith Bank and International Breweries dragged the benchmark index lower.

Precisely, the All Share Index (ASI) of the local bourse dipped by 44 basis points to settle at 51,338.27 basis points from its previous close of 51,567.69 basis points.

Thus, both the month-to-date and year-to-date performance of the ASI to stood at -0.93 per cent and 20.18 per cent from their previous close of -0.48 per cent and 20.72 per cent respectively.

Equities investors, therefore, lost N124 billion front their investment as the market capitalization followed suit the direction of the ASI to stand at N27.685 trillion, representing a 0.44 per cent downtick from the N27.809 trillion it stood at the end of the previous trading session.

Bulls, however, took dominance over the market breadth with 15 stocks in the gainers’ chart as against 10 stocks in the losers’ chart.

On the performance board, Academy Press gained 8.70 per cent to become the best performing stock of the day, followed by Regal Insurance, CWG, Cutix and NACHO.

Conversely, Champion Breweries, Ikeja Hotel, International Breweries, Multiverse and UPDCreit populated the top five losers’ chart.

Key sectoral indices closed in the same direction as the ASI, save for NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Insurance sectors gained 0.11 per cent and 0.58 per cent respectively, while NGX Oil&Gas, NGX Growth and NGX ASEM sectors closed flat.

Market activity as measured by both volume and value of trades dipped in the session, with daily traded volume standing at 115.410 million units, representing a 41.95 per cent downtick from a volume of 198.816 million units traded in the previous

The value of those traded stocks waned by 44.72 per cent in the session to stand at 1.206 billion as against a value of 2.182 billion recorded in the previous trading session.

Transcorp dominated the volume charts as the top traded stock by volume for the trading session, followed by International Breweries, FBN Holdings, Zenith Bank and Sterling to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume.

With regards to the value of traded stocks, Zenith Bank also took the lead of the top five performers, flanked by Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Seplat, Presco and FBN Holding.

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