The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd. closed trading on Tuesday on a cautious trading extending losing streak by N3 billion.

Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N20.248 trillion lost N3 billion or 0.01 per cent to close at N20.245 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index closed flat, losing 5.34 points or 0.01 per cent to close at 38,858.99 against 38,864.33 achieved on Monday.

Accordingly, the month-to-date and year-to-date losses return unchanged at 0.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively.

Market watchers attributed the decline mostly to sell-off in the financial sectors.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Africa Prudential, AXA Mansard Insurance, Zenith Bank, Access Bank and Cutix.

Consequently, market breadth closed negative with 15 laggards as against 14 gainers.

AXA Mansard Insurance dominated the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.70 per cent to close at N2.70 per share.

Africa Prudential followed with 8.59 per cent to close at N5.85, while Regency Alliance Insurance lost 6.82 per cent to close at 41k per share.

Tripple Gee & Company lost 6.25 per cent to close at 90k, while Courteville Business Solutions shed 5.71 per cent to close at 33k per share.

Conversely, Skyway Aviation Handling Company led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 9.88 per cent to close at N4.45 per share.

Wema Bank followed with 5.13 per cent to close at 82k, while Flour Mills rose by 1.87 per cent to close at N29.90 per share.

United Capital garnered 1.75 per cent to close at N8.70, while Jaiz Bank gained 1.72 per cent to close at 59k per share.

However, the total volume of trades rose by 277.41 per cent to 526.30 million units valued at N3.05 billion in 3,535 deals.

This was against a total of 139.45 million shares worth N1.71 billion transacted in 3,539 deals on Monday.

Transactions in the shares of Honeywell topped the activity chart with 402.19 million shares valued at N1.53 billion.

United Bank for Africa followed with 11.12 million shares worth N82.70 million, while Transcorp traded 9.47 million shares valued at N8.74 million.

Fidelity Bank traded 9.15 million shares worth N22.39 million, while Wema Bank transacted 8.71 million shares valued at N6.76 million.