The Nigerian equities market sustained bearish trend on Wednesday to open trading for September with a loss of N19 billion.

Specifically, the market capitalisation shed N19 billion or 0.09 per cent to close at N20.415 trillion compared with N20.434 trillion recorded on Tuesday.

Also, the All-Share Index which opened at 39,218.61 inched lower by 34.43 points or 0.09 per cent to close at 39,184.18.

The negative sentiment was driven by investors’ sell-off in Nigerian Breweries and 16 others.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, UACN, Honeywell Flour Mills, Morison Industries and Dangote Sugar Refinery.

Consequently, the market breadth closed negative with 17 losers as against nine gainers.

FTN Cocoa Processors led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 8.77 per cent to close at 52k per share.

Morison Industries followed with 5.42 per cent to close at N1.92, while UACN Property Development Company lost 4.84 per cent to close at N1.77 per share.

Jaiz Bank dropped 4.76 per cent to close at 60k, while Wema Bank shed 4.65 per cent to close at 82k per share.

On the other hand, AIICO Insurance dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms of 4.04 per cent to close at N1.03 per share.

Custodian Investment trailed by 3.15 per cent to close at N6.55, while Fidson Healthcare went up by 2.80 per cent to close at N6.25 per share.

Fidelity Bank rose by 2.55 per cent to close at N2.41, while Livestock Feeds gained 0.95 per cent to close at N2.13 per share.

Transcorp topped the activity chart with 28.54 million shares valued at N25.76 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 16.59 million shares worth N398.19 million, while Honeywell Flour Mills traded 13.23 million shares valued at N54.95 million.

United Capital sold 12.79 million shares worth N91.39 million, while Mutual Benefits Assurance transacted 8.32 million shares worth N2.52 million.

In all, the total volume of transacted declined by 60.23 per cent to 169.29 million shares valued at N1.42 billion exchanged in 3,449 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 425.66 million shares worth N1.97 billion achieved in 4,556 deals on Tuesday.