Nigeria’s equities market capitalisation decreased by N195.8 billion to N12.0 trillion, while All Share Index (ASI) shed 1.6 percent to settle at 32,190.07 points following sell offs triggered by the current undefined political climate.

Losses in bellwether stocks, Nigerian Breweries (-9.6%), Guaranty Trust Bank (-3.8%) and Zenith (-3.0%) were the major drags to Monday’s performance.As a result,  year-to-date gain moderated to 2.4 percent, and activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined by 71.2 percent  and 48.2 percent to 232.7 million units and N3.4 billion respectively.Access (25.3m units), CHAMS (21.7m units) and UBA (20.4m units) were the top trades by volume while Nestle (N779.6m), Unilever (N574.7m) and Guaranty (N519.1m) led the top trades by value.

Performance across sectors was negative as all 5 indices closed in the red. The Banking and Oil & Gas indices led decliners shedding 3.2 percent and 2.9 percent respectively following profit taking in Guaranty (-3.8%), Zenith (-3.0%), Total (-7.3%) and Mobil (-7.6%).The Consumer Goods index trailed, down 1.5 percent on the back of losses in Nigerian Breweries (-9.6%) and Dangote Sugar (-4.9%) while the Industrial Goods index fell by 1.2 percent following sell offs in Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (-4.8%) and Dangote Cement (-0.4%). WAPIC (-4.7%) and NEM Insurance (-2.0%) dragged the Insurance index 1.1 percent lower.Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.3x from 1.5x in the previous trading session as 12 stocks advanced against 37 decliners.

The day’s top performers were Presco (+10.0%), Betaglass (+9.3%) and CAP (+6.9%) while Transcorp (-9.9%), CI-Leasing (-9.8%) and Livestock Feeds (-9.7%) declined the most.The equities market analysts at Afrinvest anticipate the bearish run to be sustained this week due to pre-election jitters caused by the uncertainties surrounding the elections.Some analysts and brokers are however of the opinion that the bearish reaction may be short-lived.