By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bears returned to the Nigeria’s equities market on Monday as all-share index (ASI) dipped 1.15 percent to close at 33,875.26 points, while market capitalisation lost N57.29 billion to close at N11.18 trillion.

Cordros in its report said the trend is as a result of sell-offs in blue chips companies like cement manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc, Nigeria top tier lender Zenith Bank Plc and brewers Guinness Nigeria Plc.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE’s) Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at a negative 18.04 percent.

According to the report, only the Industrial Goods index, which fell by 1.02 percent, emulated the broader market’s movement. The Oil/Gas index gained 1.88 percent, while the Consumer Goods, Insurance and Banking indices climbed up 0.59 percent, 0.34 percent and 0.11 percent respectively.

However, market breadth closed positive at the end of the session as it recorded 28 gainers and 17 losers in spite of the loss recorded. UAC Properties led the gainers chart; gaining 88 kobo, while book publishers, Academy Press Plc led the losers table as it lost 0.05 kobo to close the session.

In terms of market turnover, at the end of transactions on the Nigerian bourse, volume traded fell by 18.29 percent to 265.90 million shares worth N2.89 billion and traded in 3,567 deals.

‘’The low levels of activity could be in anticipation of the results of the MPC meeting which is scheduled to be released tomorrow. We expect investors to trade cautiously as they await the result of the MPC meeting,’’ the Cordros report affirmed.