Losses in big caps such as GTCO (-5.1%), TRANSCORP (-5.7%), INTBREW (-9.8%), and DANGSUGAR (-4.7%), pulled the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) All Share Index (ASI) down by 0.73% to 141,566.30 points at the end of trading today.  Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +1.2% and +37.5%, respectively.

The total volume of shares traded also declined by 29.8% to 721.82 million units, valued at NGN12.94 billion, and exchanged in 28,745 deals.

CHAMPION was the most traded stock by volume at 54.52 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value at NGN1.27 billion.

Performance by sectors was broadly negative as the Insurance (-7.2%), Consumer Goods (-1.9%) and Banking (-1.2%) indices declined, while the Oil & Gas (+0.1%) index advanced. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.

Measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.4x), as 18 tickers gained relative to 49 losers. GUINNESS (-10.0%) and CONOIL (-10.0%) led the losers, while AUSTINLAZ (+10.0%) and CHAMPION (+10.4%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.