Investors in the Nigerian stock market lost N240bn in the first trading week of March as the market capitalisation declined further.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index and the market capitalisation dropped by 1.18 per cent to close last week at 39,331.61 and N20.58tn respectively.

All other indices finished lower with the exception of NSE Industrial Goods and NSE Sovereign Bond Indices which rose by 1.39 per cent and 0.07 per cent while the NSE ASeM Index closed flat.

A total turnover of 2.09 billion shares worth N29.74bn in 24,238 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, up from 1.93 billion shares valued at N20.66bn that exchanged hands in 24,687 deals in the previous week.

The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.63 billion shares valued at N10.73bn traded in 13,269 deals, thus contributing 78.06 per cent and 36.06 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The consumer goods industry followed with 92.01 million shares worth N4.52bn in 4,168 deals, while the oil and gas industry came third, with a turnover of 91.34 million shares worth N10.53bn in 1,471 deals.

Trading in the top three equities, namely Wema Bank Plc, Axamansard Insurance Plc and Zenith Bank Plc (measured by volume), accounted for 903.561 million shares worth N5.56bn in 4,017 deals, contributing 43.19 per cent and 18.71 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

A total of 56,069 units of Exchange Traded Products valued at N411.58m were traded last week in 12 deals, compared with a total of 159,764 units valued at N1.25bn transacted in 20 deals in the previous week.

A total of 4,550 units of bonds valued at N4.86m were traded last week in eight deals, compared with a total of 21,438 units valued at N23.28m transacted last week in 18 deals.