Stock investors lost N252bn as the Nigerian Exchange sustained its bearish trading on Thursday.
The market lost about N467bn between Tuesday, when it resumed after the Easter holidays and Thursday.
The bearish trend on the local bourse followed the announcement of an increase in the capital base of banks in the country.
A move that capital market stakeholders have said would boost the market.
At the close of Thursday’s trade, the All-Share Index trended downward by 0.43 per cent to 103,736.08, while the market capitalisation depreciated by the same percentage to N58.65tn.
Transaction volume rose by 20.42 per cent to 487.73 million units worth N15.63bn from the 8,908 deals.
Sector-wise, the performance was varied, with the banking and industrial goods indexes declining by 2.67 per cent and 0.09 per cent, respectively, while the insurance and consumer goods indexes advanced by 0.43 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively. The Oil/Gas sector remained flat.
The total number of gainers was 23, led by stocks of Morison Industries Plc, SCOA and International Energy Insurance 9.84 per cent, 9.77 per cent, and 9.72 per cent gain each to N2.12, N2.36 and N1.58, respectively.
C&I Leasing, whose stocks depreciated by 9.79 per cent to N3.50 led 25 other losers.
Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and United Bank for Africa were the major drivers of the volume and value of traded equities.
