The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index dipped further by 0.07 per cent to close at 40,465.32 points on Wednesday amid sustained profit-taking activity.
The market capitalisation also dropped by 0.07 per cent to close at N21.18, as investors lost N15.18bn.
Hence, the Year-to-Date gain of the ASI shrank to 0.48 per cent, even as the domestic bourse recorded 22 losers and 18 gainers.
Commenting on Wednesday’s trading, analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited, said, “Specifically, we saw investors sell part of their holdings in tickers such as BUA Cement, Access, Guinness and UBA to book profit.”
As a result, the respective share prices of BUA Cement, Access Bank, Guinness Nigeria and United Bank for Africa declined by 1.77 per cent, 1.78 per cent, 3.41 per cent and 0.59 per cent respectively.
Sectoral performance was weak, as 60 per cent of indices tracked declined.
The banking, consumer goods and industrial indices moderated by 0.24 per cent, 0.07 per cent and 0.80 per cent to close in the red zone.
However, the insurance and oil and gas indices advanced by 1.02 per cent and 0.20 per cent respectively.
Trading activity was also weak as total deals, volume and value of stocks traded fell.
Volume of trades declined by 31.49 per cent to 244.20 million units valued at N2.65bn in 4,083 deals, at the close of Wednesday’s trading session.
