The bears on Wednesday resurfaced at the Nigerian equities market as investors embarked on sell-offs, halting a two-day bull run with the benchmark index, the NSEASI declining  0.35 percent to settle at 39,031.72 points.

Year-to-date (YTD) return consequently weakened to 2.1 percent from the 2.4 percent recorded in previous session, while the month-to-date gains moderated to 2.4 percent.

Three of the five major sector indices closed negative, led by the consumer goods (-0.60%) index, and followed by the banking (-0.47%) and insurance (-0.43%) indices.

This was largely attributable to profit taking in the shares of DANGSUGAR (-2.56%), DIAMONDBNK (-5.00%), and AIICO (-4.62%), respectively.

On the flip side, the industrial goods (+0.17%) and oil & gas (+0.01%) indices posted gains following interests in CCNN (+3.77%) and JAPAULOIL (+5.88%) shares respectively.

Market breadth turned negative, with 22 losers and 20 gainers, led by DIAMONDBNK (-5.00%) and JAPAULOIL (+5.88%) shares respectively

Total volume of trades increased by 33.66 percent to 456.49 million units, valued at N4.13 billion and exchanged in 3,517 deals.