The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) commenced trading for the week on Monday with a loss of 0.30 per cent.

Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) dipped 72.83 points to close at 24,753.92 compared with 24,826.75 achieved on Friday.

Also, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.951 trillion lost N38 billion or 0.30 per cent to close at N12.913 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Nigerian Breweries, BUA Cement, Ardova and Flour Mills.

On market performance, analysts at United Capital said: “This week, we expect a tepid performance at the equity market, as investors continue to soft pedal on stock ahead of half year results.”

Also, analysts at Imperial Asset Research, expected an element of bargain hunting by some investors.

They added that some active traders would buy into some stocks that have shed weight in the previous weeks.

They urged that investors with long-term investment goals should continue to build their portfolios given the current attractive valuation of most fundamentally viable stocks.

Market breadth closed negative with 11 gainers compared with 26 laggards.

Neimeth led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping 9.74 per cent, to close at N1.39 per share.

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Cutix followed with a loss of 9.09 per cent to close at N1.60 per share.

Honeywell and Stanbic IBTC Holdings dipped 8.33 per cent each to close at 99k and N30.25 per share, respectively.

Chams declined by eight per cent to close at 23k, per share.

Conversely, Japaul Oil led the gainers’ table in percentage terms, gaining 8.70 per cent, to close at 25k, per share.

Nestle trailed with 7.72 per cent to close at N1,179, while Fidson appreciated by 7.49 per cent to close at N3.30, per share.

Sterling Bank garnered 6.67 per cent to close at N1.28, while Unity Bank appreciated by 5.26 per cent to close at 60k, per share.

Also, the total volume of shares transacted decreased by 28.62 per cent to 124.69 million shares, worth N1.32 billion, exchanged in 3,843 deals.

This was against a turnover of 174.68 million shares valued at N2.01 billion achieved in 3,695 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of Japaul Oil dominated the activity chart with 13.61 million shares worth N3.30 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank came second with 11.35 million shares valued at N260.47 million, while Zenith Bank traded 10.43 million shares valued at N168.81 million.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) sold 7.97 million shares worth N50.48 million, while Chams transacted 7.86 million shares worth N1.85 million.

(NAN)