By Peter Egwuatu

The highly capitalised stocks across sectors on Monday impacted significantly to drag down the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE All Share Index, ASI by 0.13 percent to extend downtrend in the market to seven straight sessions.

Specifically, the NSE All Share Index (ASI) was down by 47.19 absolute points, closing at 35,399.28 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation decreased by N17.23 billion, representing a dip of 0.13 percent, closing at N12.92 trillion.

Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE

Market breadth closed negative, recording 13 gainers against 26 losers. The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalized stocks, amongst which are; Wema Bank (-7.35 percent), OANDO (-5.41 percent ), Guinness Nigeria (-4.26 percent ), UBA (-3.17 percent ), Diamond  Bank (-2.52 percent), Flour Mills Nigeria  (-2.44 percent ), Dangote Sugar (-1.29 percent), Access Bank (-1.00per cent), Zenith Bank (-0.64 percent), Guaranty Trust Bank (-0.51 percent ) and  Forte Oil , FO (-0.22 percent ).

The top three performers for the day were Eterna (+9.9 percent), UACN (+7.7 percent), Courtville (+5.0 percent) while UNIONDAC (-9.1 percent), Mutual Benefit Insurance (-9.1 percent), LIVESTOCK (-8.7percent) led laggards.

Reacting on the performance of the market, analysts at Afrinvest Research said “In spite of the improved interest we observed in banking stocks last week, the index emerged the biggest loser in today’s (Monday)  trading session, shedding 0.8 percent as losses in UBA (-3.2 percent ), Guaranty Trust  Bank (-0.5 percent ) and Zenith Bank (-0.6 percent ) pulled the index lower. Similarly, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices followed suit, declining 0.5 percent  and 0.3% percent respectively on the back of price depreciation in NEM  Insurance (-5.4 percent ), AIICO (-5.6 percent) and 11PLC (-2.6 percent ). Likewise, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices closed in the red, albeit flattish, down 1bp apiece.”

The analysts further said: “We expect the bearish performance to be sustained till midweek as investors continue to take profit following some unimpressive first half, H1’18 releases.”