The All-Share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday slipped to 26,000 mark, barely a month after it dropped to 27,000 points.

The All-Share Index lost 228.52 points or 0.84 per cent to close at 26,950.76 as against 27,179.28 posted on Monday.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N9.344 trillion, lost N78 billion or 0.83 per cent to close at N9.266 trillion, following loses by major blue chip equities.

Malam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd., attributed the development to situation of the economy and persistent fall in crude oil price at the global market.

Kurfi said that investors had developed ‘wait and see’ attitude to ascertain the direction of the economy, resulting to sale pressure.

He said that preparations for the Yuletide celebration and holidays contributed to the development in the market.

A breakdown of the price movement table showed that Nestle topped the losers’ chart with N10.30 to close at N800 per share.

Guinness trailed with a loss of N5.45 to close at N122, while Seplat dipped by N3.49 to close at N206.51 per share.

Nigeria Breweries decreased by N1.90 to close at N117.10 and UACN lost N1.07 to close at N22.61 per share.

On the other hand, Unilever led the gainers’ table, appreciating by N2.05 to close at N44.05 per share.

Julius Berger garnered N1.89 to close at N39.70, while Flour Mills appreciated by N1.02 kobo to close at N22.02 per share.

Ecobank Transnational gained 74k to close at N16.64, while Presco increased by 20k to close at N32.50 per share.

UBA drove the volume of shares traded with 20.29 million shares worth N76.37 million exchanged in 145 deals.

Zenith Bank followed with a total of 18.62 million shares valued at N258.31 million in 232 deals, while GT Bank accounted for 18.24 million shares worth N346.76 million in 331 deals.

Transcorp sold 17.57 million shares valued at N25.56 million achieved in 124 deals and Tiger Brand Consumer goods exchanged 14.87 million shares worth N19.117 transacted in 111 deals.

In all, investors bought and sold 189.32 million shares worth N3.16 billion achieved in 3,265 deals, as against 417.84 million shares valued at N2.97 billion traded in 2,710 deals on Monday.