Trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), on Wednesday, continued in the red, as both market performances depreciated considerably.

The market capitali-sation shed N96 billion to close at N5.896 trillion, while the all-share index equally dropped by 392.1 basis points to close at 24,111.51.

However, investors on the trading floor of the market continued  their patronage for banks shares, as a total of 115.4 million shares, valued at N909.02 million, exchanged hands in 3,837 deals.

The high volume of shares traded in the sub-sector was largely driven by the activity in the shares of First Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank and Zenith Bank.

Trading on the shares of the four banks accounted for 53.3 million ordinary shares or 53.8 per cent of the sub-sector turnover.

Despite the depreciation recorded by equities on the floor of the NSE, on Wednesday, investors responded positively to the  half year result of Access Bank, which offered 20 kobo interim dividend.

The bank, which closed trading the previous day at N7.77, appreciated by 32 kobo to close at N8.09 per share on Wednesday.