The equities market settled lower on Tuesday as market capitalization declined by N422 billion to close at N28.567 trillion from N28.989 trillion on Monday.

The All-Share Index (ASI) also dipped by 1.45 percent to 52,990.28 points from 53,772.14 points recorded on Monday.

The Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns increased to 6.8 percent and 24.1 percent, respectively.

Sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Industrial Goods recorded a decline of 3.6 per cent, Consumer Goods fell by 1.8 per cent, Oil and Gas dropped by 0.8 per cent, Banking also dropped by 0.2 percent, and Insurance fell by 0.1 per cent.

The market sentiment was positive with 19 gainers relative to 16 losers.

Transcorp Hotel topped the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 6.48 percent to close at N6.25 per share.

Champion Breweries followed with 5.05 percent to close at N3.95, while CWG rose by 5.05 percent to close at N1.04 per share.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) rose by 5.04 percent to close at N12.50, while LASACO Assurance appreciated by 4.81 percent to close at N1.09 per share.

Conversely, Nigerian Breweries led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.96 percent to close at N62.40 per share.

NNFM dropped by 9.83 percent to close at N10.55, while Japaul Gold declined by 9.09 percent to close at 30k.

Also, Prestige and Multiverse Mining and Exploration followed with a loss of 6.98 percent and 4.76 percent each to close at 40k and 20k, respectively.

The total volume traded decreased by 98.9 percent to 318.28 million units valued at NGN3.71 billion, exchanged in 5,190 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Transcorp topped the activity chart with 86.74million shares valued at N111.73 million.

Jaiz Bank sold 22.77 million shares worth N20.25 million, while Sovereign Insurance accounted for 20.21 million shares valued at N5.03 million.

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) traded 19.76 million shares worth N68.51 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 17.17 million shares valued at N25.71 million.

MTN Nigeria was the most traded stock by value at NGN1.64 billion.