Trading activities on the nation’s bourse closed on a negative note on Thursday to halt two consecutive days of bullish sentiment.

Specifically, the All-Share Index dipped 57.03 points or 0.15 per cent to close at 38,911.31 from 38,968.34 recorded on Wednesday.

Accordingly, the month-to-date and year-to-date losses increased to 0.8 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N20.303 trillion lost N30 billion to close at N20.273 trillion.

The downturn was due to sell-off sentiment in all major sectors except the insurance sector.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks, which are Eterna, Lafarge Africa, International Breweries, Honeywell Flour Mills and Guaranty Trust Holding Company.

Consequently, the market breadth closed negative with 17 losers as against 10 gainers.

Eterna dominated the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.44 per cent to close at N6.52 per share.

SCOA followed with 9.40 per cent to close at N1.06, while International Breweries lost four per cent to close at N4.80 per share.

Honeywell Flour Mills lost 3.93 per cent to close at N3.91, while Union Bank of Nigeria shed three per cent to close at N4.85 per share.

Conversely, Unity Bank led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.62 per cent to close at 57k per share.

FTN Cocoa Processors trailed with 8.70 per cent to close at 50k, while Cornerstone Insurance rose by 8.33 per cent to close at 52k per share.

Chams was up by five per cent to close at 21k, while Sovereign Trust Insurance appreciated by 4.17 per cent to close at 25k per share.

An analysis of the activity chart shows that transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 24.78 million shares valued at N230.26 million.

Universal Insurance followed with 15.27 million shares worth N3.05 million, while Zenith Bank sold 8.49 million shares valued at N200.67 million.

GTCO accounted for 6.75 million shares worth N182.78 million, while Japaul Gold and Ventures transacted 5.99 million shares valued at N2.99 million.

In all, the total volume of trades dropped by 7.9 per cent with an exchange of 130.20 million units valued at N1.43 billion achieved in 2,962 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 141.41 million shares worth N2.97 billion transacted in 3,079 deals on Wednesday.