Domestic equity market activities continued last week’s bearish trends, with indices dropping 0.38 per cent amid sell-off pressure.
Thus, the All-Share Index fell by 159.31 points or 0.38 per cent to close at 42,008.60 from 42,167.91 on Friday.
This resulted in a 2.9 per cent loss month-to-date, while the year-to-date gain dipped to 4.3 per cent.
Overall, the market capitalisation fell by N83 billion or 0.83 per cent to close at N21.920 trillion against N22.003 trillion on Friday.
The market’s negative performance was driven by the depreciation of large and medium capitalised stocks, namely Lafarge Africa, Vitafoam Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria, Dangote Sugar Refinery and United Bank for Africa (UBA).
Analysts at United Capital Plc said: “This week, we expect the equities market to remain sideways, with a bearish bias, as we do not expect any major catalyst to change the direction of the market.
“We think sustained selloffs in the equities market could present buy opportunities for investors.”
The market sentiment was negative with 24 stocks lagging compared to 10 gainers.
In percentage terms, Lafarge Africa led the losers’ chart with a loss of 9.94 per cent to close at N22.20 per share.
Linkage Assurance closed at 51k, while Associated Bus Company lost 8.82 per cent to end at 31k.
Vitafoam Nigeria lost 8.68 per cent to close at N20, while Fidelity Bank shed 5.60 per cent to close at N2.36.
In contrast, Royal Exchange closed at 58k per share with a 9.43 per cent gain.
UACN Property Development Company, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, and Meyer followed, closing at N1.08, 48k and 24k, respectively.
Champion Breweries closed at N2.59 per share, up 7.92 per cent.
The volume of units traded however increased by 133.3 per cent to 422.18 million units valued at N4.47 billion exchanged in 5,059 transactions.
In contrast, on Friday, 180.95 million shares worth a total of N2.43 billion were traded in 4,019 deals.
FBN Holdings (FBNH) topped the activity chart with 128.87 million shares valued at N1.51 billion traded.
Sterling Bank followed with 77.77 million shares worth N115.78 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company traded 47.79 million shares worth N1.15 billion.
UBA transacted 18.59 million shares worth 140.001 million, while United Capital traded 20.96 million worth N202.72 million.