The negative trend in the Nigerian equities market continued Tuesday, recording a third consecutive trading loss as benchmark index fell 1.1 percent to close at 32,410.20 points.  Year-to-date (YTD) gain further moderated to 20.6 percent. The poor performance was majorly due to price decline in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.9 percent) as well as banking counters - UBA (-5.8 percent), GUARANTY (-1.3 percent), ETI (-4.9 percent), STANBIC (-3.0 percent), FBNH (-3.4 percent) and ACCESS (-2.3 percent). All sector indices save for industrial goods close in the red Accordingly, market capitalization declined by N162.2 billion to settle at N11.2 trillion. However, market activity improved as volume and value traded rose 27.0 percent and 12.2 percent to settle at 206.1 million units and N1.7 billion respectively. Sector performance was bearish as all indices closed in the red save for the industrial goods index, which marginally added one basis point due to gains in FIRSTALUM (+3.5 percent). The Banking index depreciated the most, down 2.3 percent as investors continue to take profit in Tier-1 and Tier-2 lenders. The consumer goods index followed suit, losing 1.2 percent due to declines in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.9 percent) and GUINNESS (-4.9 percent). Similarly, the oil & gas index trailed with a 1.1 percent loss on account of depreciations in CONOIL (-4.9 percent) and OANDO (-1.6 percent) while the Insurance index shed 11 basis points due to profit taking in NEM (-1.9 percent). In line with market performance, investor sentiment was soft as reflected in the market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio), which stayed flat at 0.3x as 10 stocks advanced while 30 declined.

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REDSTAREX (+10.1 percent), HONYFLOUR (+9.8 percent) and SKYE (+4.8 percent) led the gainers chart while NEIMETH (-8.5 percent), UBA (-5.7 percent) and FLOURMILL (-5.1 percent) led laggards. As we noted yesterday, market performance remains driven by profit taking after the sustained rally over the last 3 months. Nonetheless, we believe this negative trend will be reversed on account of bargain hunting in subsequent sessions. In the NASD OTC exchange, seven counters traded with total volume and value of transactions closing at 1.2m units and N23.1m respectively. WAMCO (+8.8 percent) closed in the green while CSCS (-6.4 percent) closed in the red. GEO-FLUIDS, GOLDEN CAPITAL, RESOURCE, TRUSTBOND and NDEP closed flat.