Heightened geopolitical tensions and deepening uncertainty surrounding the nation’s fiscal policy environment have continued to take toll on equities listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) as investors lost N4.6 trillion yesterday.

This represents the largest single-day loss in the market since March 2020, when market caves in to due to Covid-19 lockdown. The key factors that have triggered market selloff include the introduction of capital gain tax on Nigerian equities, rumoures failed coup and the U.S. planned military intervention in Nigeria, analysts have said.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 4.91 per cent to N89.884 trillion from N94.526 trillion it closed on Monday. The all-share index, which measures the performance of lisyed equities also depreciated by 7,454 basis points or 5.01 per cent to 141,327.3 points from 148,781.9 points traded the previous day.

The market breath was negative with only four advancer against 62 decliners, bringing year to date return lower to 37.31 per cent. Volume of shares traded increased by 291.602 million, representing 80.03 per cent as investors traded 655.953 million shares against 364.351 million traded the previous day.

The sell off was seen across all segments of the market, from banking, to consumer goods, oil and gas, insurance and ondustrial goods. Industrial goods sector led the decline with a drop of 8.55.per cent, followed by banking at 7.27 per cent, oil & gas with 4.65 per cent drop, Insurance lost 4.33 pee cent, consumer goods declined by 2.2 pr cent while commodity sector depreciated by 2.07 per cent.

Further review of yesterday’s trading showed that Custodian Insurance, Bua Cement and Academy Press declined by 10 per cent to close at N34.20 kobo, N162. and N6.75 kobo respectively. MTN Nigeria and Deap Capital also fell by 10 per cent to close respectively at N429.30 kobo and N1.71 kobo.

NCR led gainers table with 9.82 per cent to close at N21.25 kobo. Berger Paint followed with a gain of 2.56 per cent to close at N36. FCMB group gained 0.96 per cent to close at N10.50 kobo, Mansard Insurance added 0.25 per cent to close at N12.10 kobo.

Transactions in the shares of FirstHoldco Plc led market activities with 68.264 million shares valued at N2.113 billion, Access Holdings company followed with account of 56.282 million shares worth N1.184 billion, Zenith Bank exchanged 41.916 million shares cost N2.321 billion, Fidelity Bank traded 38.483 million shares worth N693.734 million while Stanbic IBTC sold a total of 31.55 million shares valued at N3.193 billion.

Meanwhile, the naira showed mixed movements against the dollar yesterday as it edged down slightly by 0.10% in the official NAFEM window, closing at N1,438.71/$, while the parallel market rate held steady at N1,440/$, highlighting the persistent gap between official and unofficial exchange rates.