The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) reversed its previous gains yesterday as market capitalization fell by ₦119 billion, primarily due to widespread selling of high-value stocks.

The All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 189.73 points (0.18%) to close at 104,187.00 points, while market capitalization dropped to ₦65.470 trillion.

This downturn was driven by losses in medium and large capitalized stocks including Unilever Nigeria, PZ Cussons Nigeria, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), and United Bank for Africa (UBA).

Sector performance showed mixed results with banking (-1.6%) and consumer goods (-0.2%) indices declining, while insurance (+2.7%) and oil & gas (+0.5%) indices advanced. The Industrial Goods index remained unchanged.

Despite the general market decline, positive sentiment prevailed with 33 gainers outpacing 23 losers. Top performers included Livestock Feeds and VFD Group, both gaining 10% to close at ₦8.03 and ₦72.60 respectively. Nigerian Exchange Group followed with a 9.86% gain, closing at ₦35.65.

Among the decliners, Learn Africa and Haldane McCall led with 10% losses each, closing at ₦2.97 and ₦5.22 respectively. ETI fell by 9.90% to ₦26.85, while PZ Cussons Nigeria dropped 9.88% to ₦30.10.

Trading volume decreased by 18.23% to 376.617 million units valued at ₦11.888 billion across 11,576 deals. GTCO dominated trading activity with 62.882 million shares worth ₦4.095 billion, followed by Access Holdings with 51.378 million shares valued at ₦1.059 billion.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​