The Nigerian stock market extended its losing streak on Thursday by 0.32 per cent due to losses in some highly capitalised stocks.

Accordingly, the All-Share Index declined by 136.25 per cent, representing a decrease of 0.32 per cent to close at 43,108.77 from 43,245.02 posted on Wednesday.

Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date return moderated to 2.6 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the market capitalisation lost N71 billion to close at N22.494 trillion against N22.565 trillion on Wednesday.

The negative performance of the market was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are: Seplat Energy, Nigerian Breweries, MRS Oil, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and UACN.

The market closed negative with 24 laggards relative to 14 gainers.

MRS Oil led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.87 per cent to close at N13.70 per share.

Chams followed with 8.70 per cent to close at 21k, while ETI lost 8.57 per cent to close at N8 per share.

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance declined by 8.06 per cent to close at 57k, while Unity Bank shed 7.27 per cent to close at 51k per share.

On the other hand, Honeywell Flour Mills drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.76 per cent to close at N4.05 per share.

AIICO Insurance followed with 8.47 per cent to close at 64k, while Regency Alliance Insurance was up by 8.33 per cent to close at 39k per share.

Ikeja Hotel and University Press appreciated by eight per cent each to close at N1.35 and N2.70 per share, respectively.

The total volume traded increased by 9.4 per cent to 266.12 million units valued at N4.22 billion exchanged in 3,905 deals.

This was against a total of 243.19 million shares worth N3.75 billion achieved in 3,777 deals on Wednesday.

Transactions in the shares of Honeywell Flour Mills topped the activity chart with 52.47 million shares valued at N209.57 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company followed with 22.96 million shares worth N578.56 million, while Zenith Bank traded 22.89 million shares valued at N559.04 million.

Transcorp traded 18.47 million shares worth N17.73 million, while Access Bank transacted 13.94 million shares va,ued at N127.37 million.