Consequently, the market capitalisation of listed equities also decreased by 0.28 per cent to N58.95tn, while year-to-date returns of the ASI dropped to 39.43 per cent. This trade pattern led investors to suffer a loss of N168bn despite the market recording more gainers, 29 compared to 24 losers.
Leading the gainers chart were NEM Insurance, Computer Warehouse Group and Juli Plc which rose by 10 per cent, 10 per cent and 9.98 per cent, respectively.
Among the top five decliners of the day were Secure Electronic Technology Plc, and The Initiates Plc whose shares depreciated by 10 per cent each to close at N0.54 and N2.16 respectively. Following was FBN Holdings which dipped by 9.90 per cent to close at N39.60 from N43.95.
Trading activity on the NGX further declined, with total deals, volume and value plummeting by 13.62 per cent, 2.73 per cent, and 9.92 per cent to 8,248 trades, 289.65 million units, and N6.84bn, respectively.
Despite the drop in trading activities, performance across the sub-sector gauges was positive, with the Insurance sector leading the gainers with a 2.09 per cent increase, driven by buy interest in NEM, International Energy Insurance, Sovereign Insurance, LASACO and Axa Mansard.
Following were the Consumer Goods and Oil/Gas indexes with mild gains of 0.14 per cent and 0.24 per cent, respectively, fueled by International Breweries, Unilever, Flourmills and Eterna Plc.
On a negative note, Banking and Industrial Goods indices experienced declines of 1.79 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively.
By the end of the session, FBNH led the charts in traded volume and value, with 38.76 million shares worth N1.56bn exchanging hands in 730 deals.
