Following the Christmas holidays, the Nigerian stock market resumed trading on Wednesday with a loss of N238 billion due to profit-taking.

The market capitalization, which opened at N22.060 trillion and closed at N21.822 trillion, was down N238 billion or 1.08 percent.

In addition, the All-Share Index fell 455.75 points, or 1.08 percent, to settle at 41,807.10, down from 42,262.85 on Friday.

As a result, the month-to-date loss grew to 3.3%, while the year-to-date gain slowed to 3.8 percent.

The stock market resumed trading after the federal government proclaimed public holidays on December 27 and 28 to commemorate Christmas and Boxing Day.

Price depreciation of major and medium capitalized firms such as BUA Cement, MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN), PZ Cussons, May & Baker, and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated drove the market’s dismal performance.

With 17 gainers to 16 losers, market sentiment was somewhat favorable.

BUA Cement, which closed at N67.05 per share, led the losers’ list by 10%.

May & Baker followed with a 9.98% drop to settle at N4.06, while PZ Cussons dropped 8.96% to close at N6.10 a share.

UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust fell 6.25 percent to settle at N3.75 per share, while Jaiz Bank fell 8.06 percent to close at 57k.

Union Bank of Nigeria, on the other hand, led the gainers’ chart by 9.91 percent to settle at N6.10 per share.

The Royal Exchange increased 9.09 percent to close at 84,000 shares, while Sovereign Trust Insurance rose 7.69 percent to conclude at 28,000.

Caverton Offshore Support Group gained 2.99 percent to settle at N1.72 per share, while Livestock Feeds gained 6.86 percent to close at N2.18.

The overall amount traded, however, climbed by 61.10 percent, with 180.182 million units worth N1.48 billion transacted in 3,828 transactions.

On Friday, 111.84 million shares worth N911.92 million were exchanged in 2,072 trades, compared to 111.84 million shares worth N911.92 million on Friday.

With 17.65 million shares worth at N10.53 million, transactions in the shares of Jaiz Bank topped the activity table.

Union Bank came in second with 16.80 million shares valued at N101.83 million, followed by UACN with 12.88 million shares at N123.52 million.

Sovereign Trust Insurance sold 9.99 million shares worth N2.78 million, while Transcorp sold 11.39 million shares worth N11.25 million.