MARKET activity on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) started yesterday, March 27, on a negative note as investors lost N621.99 billion in a single day trading.

At the close of the day’s trading session, the market capitalisation, which is the total value of all the company’s shares on the exchange, fell to N29.28 trillion from N29.903 trillion with which it opened.

The All-Share Index also fell sharply by 2.08 per cent to 53,750.77 basis points (bps) after it opened at 54,892.53bps.

While the year-to-date gain of the domestic market declined to 4.87 per cent, the share prices of 21 companies fell relative to five companies whose share prices gained.

The start of this week’s trading showed that Airtel Africa, Seplat Energy, Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Breweries (NB), and MTN Nigeria Communications were notable stocks whose share prices dropped significantly.

As such, Airtel share price dropped by N128.70 to close at N1,420; Seplat fell by N50 to close at N1,150; Lafarge declined by 0.70k to close at N25.25; NB shed N1 to close at N37.00; and MTNN moderated by N3 to close at N233.

The general negative sentiment reflected also on the performance of the sector tracked as all the sub-sector indices closed in the red zone.

The banking index dropped by 0.23 per cent to close at 435.96bps; insurance fell by 0,55 per cent to close at 173.74bps; consumer goods saw a 0.79 per cent drop to 690.69bps; oil and gas declined by 2.02 per cent to close at 510.83bps; and industrial index shed 0.14 per cent to close at 2,535.78bps, respectively.

As the total volume of stocks traded fell by 26.66 per cent to 100.88 million units, total deals and value rose by 12.60 per cent and 12.11 per cent to 3,279 deals and N4.34 billion respectively.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) topped as the most traded stock – in terms of volume – with 12.84 million shares worth N318.51 million that changed hands in 251 deals at the close of Monday’s trading.