Shifting toward a sectoral perspective, overall performance reflected weak investor sentiments as four sectors out of the five sectors we cover closed in the red while one closed green. The Banking (+0.5%) sector was the sole gainer owing to increased bargain hunting in ZENITHBANK(+0.8%), FIDELITYBK (+5.5%) and STANBIC (+1.7%).The Insurance (-1.2%) sector led the laggards underpinned by sell pressure in NEM (-6.1%). Trailing behind was the Oil and Gas sector (0.1%) on the back of sell-pressure in OANDO (-0.6%). Lastly, the Industrial and Consumer goods sectors lost 3bps and 2bps due to price depreciation in WAPCO(-0.4%) and CADBURY(-5.5%).

Investor sentiment was unchanged from the previous day, settling at 0.8x as assessed by the market breadth, with eleven (11) tickers showing advancement while fourteen (14) tickers declined. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, we see room for sustained bargain-hunting as investors will continue to cherry-pick stocks with strong fundamentals, also taking advantage of the depressed market prices to secure attractive entry positions. However, we maintain that the local bourse will remain lull and broadly bearish as the prospect of even higher interest rates and the depressed exchange rate weigh on investor sentiments in the medium term.