By Chinwendu Obienyi

Transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) opened Monday’s trading on a negative footing as sell-offs in the highly capitalised stocks drove market’s index down 0.44 per cent.

Specifically, the NGX All Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.44 per cent to close at 39,306.47 points, while investors lost N91 billion with market capitalisation down to N20.487 trillion.

Analysis of the performance of the market showed that trading activity improved as both volume and value of stocks traded rose 62.9 and 2.5 per cent respectively to 357.7 million units and N3.56 billion, exchanged in 4,347 deals.

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The most traded stocks by volume included Zenith Bank (52.7 million units), FBN Holdings (42.5 million units) and NEM (39.5 million units) while Zenith Bank (N1.2 billion), Dangote Sugar(N368.8 million), and MTNN (N313.9 million) led by value.

Commenting on the market’s performance, analysts at Afrinvest, said, “In the coming trading session, we expect the sell pressure on the domestic stock market to mildly reduce”.

Investor sentiment was negative as 22 stocks appreciated while 14 others depreciated in value.

Eterna Oil (+9.8 per cent), Royal Exchange (+9.2 per cent), and Capital Hotel (+9.1 per cent) led gainers’ chart while Enamelware (-9.8 per cent), Africa Prudential (-6.9 per cent), and NPF Microfinance Bank (-6.4 per cent) led losers’ chart.