The equity market started the week and the month on a weak note due to sell-off in some largely capitalised, making capital capitalisation to drop by N226.45 billion.

The negative performance was driven by BUA Cement, Neimeith, Fidelity Bank, and International Breweries among others.

Consequently, the market capitalisation closed at N26.936 trillion from the N27.163 recorded on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 0.83 percent to close at 49,950.32 points compared to 49,667.14 recorded on Friday.

The year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 16.93 percent.

Similarly, traded volume declined by 28 percent with 176 million units traded and value traded fell 19 per cent to N2.2 billion.

However, market breath was  positive as 21 stocks gained and 14 declined.

Caverton Offshore Support Group and  Courtville Business Solutions led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 10 percent to close at N1.10  and 44k per share, respectively.

Champion Breweries followed with a gain of  9.59 percent to close at  N4, while Unity Bank rose by 9.30 percent to close at 47k per share.

Livestock also went up by 8.70 percent each to close at N1.25.

On the other hand, Bua Cement led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.96 percent each to close at N62.40  per share.

McNichols Consolidated shed 9.89 percent to close at 82k per share.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals also lost 9.68 percent to close at N1.40 per share, while International Breweries lost 6.54 percent to close at N5 per share.

Meyer & Baker declined by 6.42 percent to close at N3.35 per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions reducing by 19.21 percent, a total of 176.05 million units of shares valued at N2.27 billion.

Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) topped the volume chart with 21.37 million shares valued N426.8 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 20.452 million shares worth N429.28 million, while AccessCorp traded 16.79 million shares valued N149.67 million.

First Bank of Nigeria (FBNH)  traded 14.31 million shares valued at N153.13 million, while United Bank for Africa transacted 14.26 million shares worth N100.53 million.