The equities market segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended Monday’s trading session in negative territory, as the All-Share Index closed at 27,691.85 basis points, against 27,800.17 achieved on Friday, which represented a 0.39 per cent decline.
Similarly, investors lost N52bn in values as the market capitalisation closed lower at N13.472tn compared with N13.524tn on Friday.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which are Seplat, Forte Oil, Julius Berger, International Breweries and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expect the bearish performance to continue as an investor sentiment remains weak.
Also, analysts at Imperial Asset Managers Limited expect bargain hunting on stocks that have witnessed significant price deceleration to be prominent this week.
They, however, say they do not rule out the possibility of profit-taking, considering current investors’ weak confidence in the market.
Market breadth closed negative, with 19 gainers and 21 decliners.
Forte Oil and Seplat led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each, to close at N14.40 and N441 per share respectively.
Julius Berger came second, losing 9.95 per cent to close at N18.55 per share.
Champion Breweries lost 9.47 per cent to close at N1.53, while Courteville Business Solutions shed 9.09 per cent to close at 20k per share.
Conversely, Associated Bus Company and Sovereign Trust Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at 33k and 22k, respectively.
John Holt followed with a gain 8.70 per cent to close at 50k per share.
NPF Microfinance Bank went up by 8.62 per cent to close at N1.26, while Tripple Gee and Company appreciated by 7.94 per cent to close at 68k per share.
The total volume traded also closed lower with an exchange of 158.27 million shares valued at N2.3bn traded in 3,595 deals.
