Losses in the stocks of Dangote Sugar, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), among others further weakened the performance of the equity market of Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX).

Specifically, investors lost N412 billion or 0.71 per cent, as the market capitalisation, which opened at N58.276 trillion, closed at N57.864 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share index shed 0.71 per cent or 733 points to settle at 102,314.56, as against 103,047.23 recorded on Monday.

Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return dropped to 36.83 per cent.

Profit taking in some banking stocks such as: FBN Holdings (FBNH), Zenith Bank, Access Corporation, as well as United Capital, Nestle, Eterna Plc, among other top declining stocks pushed the market performance further to a negative terrain.

Market breadth also closed negative with 36 losers and 12 gainers on the trading floor of the Exchange.

On the losers table, Dangote Sugar and GTCO led by 10 per cent each to close at N53.10 and N41.40 per share, respectively.

Flour Mills lost 9.87 per cent to close at N33.80, Multiverse declined by 9.84 per cent to close at N13.75 and FTN Cocoa Processors depreciated by 8.82 per cent to close at N1.55 per share.

Conversely, Transcorp led the gainers table by 9.93 per cent to close at N14.95, Morison Industries Plc followed by 9.87 per cent to close at N2.56 per share.

Also, Oando Plc added 9.61 per cent to close at N12.55, Caverton advanced by 8.54 per cent to close at N1.78 and Deap Capital Management rose by 7.94 per cent to close at 68k per share.

However, analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 569.96 per cent.

A total of 734.04 million shares valued at N21.59billion were exchanged in 12,491 deals, compared to 245.86 million shares valued at N3.22 billion, exchanged in 5,302 deals traded in the previous session.

United Bank of Africa (UBA) led the volume chart with 148.88 million shares traded in deals worth N4.01 billion.

Zenith Bank traded 135.81 million shares valued at N5.48 billion, GTCO sold 98.76 million shares worth N4.13 billion, Transcorp transacted 71.43 million shares worth N998.48 million.

Access Corporation also sold 44.31 million shares valued at N868.1 million.