The All-Share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday dropped to 30,000 mark due to sell pressure less than a week it went back to 31,000 mark.

The index lost 422.39 points or 1.35 per cent to close at 30,950.51, the lowest in the year.

This is against 31,372.90 posted on Tuesday due to huge losses by blue chip equities.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N10.714 trillion lost N138 billion to close at N10.576 trillion.

The index on July 9 dropped to 31,000, with the market losing 263.50 points to close at 31,768.23.

Market analysts had expressed concerns about the persistent downward trend experienced at the nation’s bourse.

Malam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd., said that the Federal Government should show concern to the developments at the Nigerian capital market.

Kurfi said that government should release its economic blue print to contain the slide, adding that the capital market was the engine growth of the economy.

Forte Oil led the gainers’ table, growing by N16.87 to close at N196.87 per share.

Total came second with N1.60 to close at N159.60, while FCMB gained 24k to close at N3 per share.

Diamond Bank grew by 16k to close at N3.96, while Guinness rose by 9k to close at N140 per share.

On the other hand, Seplat topped the losers’ chart, shedding N16 to close at N319 per share.

Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N4.90 to close at N128.60, while Dangote Cement dipped N2.01 to close at N168 per share.

Lafarge Africa and Oando declined by N2 and N1.17 respectively to close at N100 and N12.10 per share each.

Zenith Bank for the third consecutive day remained the toast of investors, exchanging 234.74 million shares worth N4.21 billion traded in 273 deals.

Access Bank followed with 30.64 million shares valued N147.73 million achieved in 255 deals, while Transcorp accounted for 19.59 shares worth N41.19 million traded in 225 deals.

FBN Holding exchanged 14.16 million shares valued N108.26 transacted in 366 deals, while UBA accounted for 12.255 million shares valued at N52.967 million in 161 deals.

In all, the volume of shares traded inched by 52.71 per cent as investors staked N7.49 billion on 423.15 million shares exchanged in 3,961 deals.

This was against the 277.09 million shares worth N4.46 billion traded in 3,643 deals on Tuesday.