The NGX began the week’s trading on a negative note, falling N288.9 billion as Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc and 29 other companies’ profit-taking operations hampered market performance.

The stock market started for trade with Dangote Sugar Refinery leading the losers table, with a 10% down in share price, or N5.90 to N53.10, and an overall market capitalization loss of N288.9 billion, or N58.88 trillion, from N59.169 trillion.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns dropped to +4.2 percent and +39.3 percent, respectively, while the NGX All-Share Index lost 0.49 percent, reaching 104,136.35 index points as opposed to the 104,647.37 index points from the previous session.

The NGX Banking and NGX Consumer Goods saw decreases of 1.7% and 0.8%, respectively, while NGX Insurance saw an increase of 0.2%. The NGX Oil & Gas and NGX Industrial Goods indices ended the day at levels of 1,294.38 basis points and 4,832.80 basis points, respectively.

Twenty companies rose and thirty sank, resulting in a negative closing attitude for investors as indicated by market breadth. Ellah Lakes closed at N3.63 per share, recording the largest price gain of 10%. After that, Morison Industries closed at N1.55 with a 9.93% gain, and SUNU Assurance closed at N1.27 with a 9.48% gain.

Secure Electronic Technology saw a 9.09 percent increase to close at 60 kobo per share, while Caverton Offshore Support Group saw a 9.38 percent increase to conclude at N1.75.

Conversely, Jaiz Bank trailed behind with a 9.92% decline to settle at N2.18, per share, while Dangote Sugar Refinery and International Energy Insurance headed the losers’ table by 10% each to close at N53.10 and N1.35, respectively.

DEAP Capital Management & Trust went down 9.52% to settle at 57 kobo per share, while Ikeja Hotels lost 9.72% to close at N5.85.

With 306.822 million units sold in 9,343 trades for a total value of N11.383 billion, the overall volume traded decreased by 39.34 percent. With 35.548 million shares valued at N4.052 billion, transactions involving shares of the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund (NIDF) topped the activity list.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 19.539 million shares valued at N519.286 million, followed by Jaiz Bank with 23.511 million shares worth N52.573 million.