By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened the week on a bearish note as the all-share index (ASI) closed at 29,002.06 points, while market capitalisation dipped by N104.18 billion to N9.96 trillion.

“Today’s proceedings pared the Year-to-Date gain to 1.26 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.

This is coming on the heels of profit taking activities which continued to dominate dealings on the local bourse.

Also, the Banking sector came under pressure as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) dissolved the board of Skye Bank Plc; which eventually topped the losers chart with a loss of 9.52 percent.

At the close of trading on the Nigerian Equities Market, selloffs in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc cumulated to 3.08 percent, 1.39 percent and 0.22 percent losses respectively to weigh down the Banking index by 1.08 percent.

Similarly, the Industrial Goods index dipped by 2.08 percent, following losses reported in the shares of cement manufacturers, Dangote Cement Plc, Lafarge Cement Wapco Plc and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc by 0.52 percent, 4.29 percent and 1.34 percent apiece.

In the same vein, the Consumer Goods index declined by 0.93 percent, owing to the poor performance recorded in the shares of brewers, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc and food and beverage maker, Cadbury Nigeria Plc by 5.21 percent, 0.84 percent and 3.75 percent each.

Also, Cordros reported that the Insurance index suffered a loss of 0.82 percent, driven by price depreciations in the shares of insurers, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc, Custodian & Allied Plc and Nem Insurance Plc all going down by 4.80 percent, 3.70 percent and 1.96 percent respectively.

Negative investor interest in the shares of oil marketing majors, Forte Oil Plc and Total Nigeria Plc both declining by 5.00 percent, 4.48 percent apiece, overshadowed Oando Plc’s gain of 10.16 percent to see the Oil & Gas index close lower by 0.83 percent.

At the close of the session on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth was negative with 10 gainers and 31 losers declared, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics.

Oando emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.68 kobo per share; while Skye Bank topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.10 kobo per share to close the session.

In terms of turnover, total volume traded dropped by 24.72 percent to 142.84 million shares, valued at N1.35 billion, and traded in 3,321 deals.

“We expect the market to trade sideways when it resumes from the 2-day national holiday,” the Cordros update affirmed.