NGX: Bearish sentiment continues as investors lose N73.85bn

Bearish sentiment continued yesterday at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) as the All-Share Index closed 0.13 per cent lower to 97,343.42 points, marking its fourth successive session decline.Trade turnover settled at 22.87 per cent, higher than the previous session, with 355.55 million shares valued at N7.14bn in 7,333 transactions.

GTCO (+0.00 per cent) led the volume and value chart with 71.87m units traded in deals worth N3.04bn.

Market breadth closed negative at a 0.45-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering the advancing ones. PZ (-10.70 per cent) topped 28 others on the laggards’ table, while CUSTODIAN (+9.63 per cent) led 12 others on the leaders’ log.

Sales pressures in ZENITHBANK (-3.20 per cent), FBNH (-1.02 per cent) and UBA (-4.35 per cent) outweighed buying interest in telecom giant, MTNN (+1.82 per cent). Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) fell to 30.18 per cent, while the market capitalisation shed N73.85bn to close at N55.06trn.