By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday closed in red as all-share index (ASI) posted the largest daily decline of 4.26 percent to close at 27,671.08 points, while market capitalisation slumped by N425.56 billion to N9.50 trillion.

“Today’s unprecedented loss significantly cut the Month-to-Date gain to 10.41 percent and bashed the Year-to-Date return back to the red (-3.39 percent)”, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report says this is coming on the heels of sentiments reversal, driven by profit-taking on last week’s gains after the President’s democracy day speech created uncertainty about the future of the country’s exchange rate policy.

According to the Cordros update, at the close of the session, the Banking index suffered a loss of 6.62 percent, on the back of massive selloffs in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lenders and financial holdCo, Zenith Bank Plc by 9.40 percent, FBN Holdings Plc 9.40 percent and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc 5.75 percent apiece.

The report says following suit is the Industrial and Consumer Goods indices closing 5.50 percent and 2.79 percent each, the Oil & Gas 2.39 percent and Insurance index 1.01 percent, all closing lower, owing to respective price declines recorded  in the shares of cement producers, Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria Plc 7.76 percent, Dangote Cement Plc by 4.64 percent and brewers, Nigerian Breweries Plc and Guinness Nigeria Plc both declining by 4.93 percent and 5.00 percent respectively, while, oil marketing majors, Forte Oil Plc and Oando Plc declined 5.00 percent and 4.93 percent each. Insurers, AIICO Insurance Plc and Axa Mansard Insurance Plc dipped by 4.94 percent and 4.74 percent apiece.

At the close of the session, market breadth closed negative, with nine (9) gainers and 39 losers posted, according to the NSE daily market statistics. Leading logistics company, Trans-Nationwide Express Plc, emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.14 kobo per share; while Nigeria’s tier one lender, Zenith topped the losers chart with a loss of N1.60 kobo per share

Total volume traded on the Nigerian bourse dropped by 46.08 percent to 335.06 million shares, valued at N3.15 billion, and exchanged hands in 4,301 deals.

“We expect profit-taking to persist in the coming session,” the Cordros update affirmed.