The equities market began the week in the red as the All-Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange fell by 1.26 per cent to close at 145,159.77 points on Monday.

The decline wiped off about N1.17tn from investors’ wealth, dragging market capitalisation down to N92.3tn.

According to market data, the downturn was driven largely by heavy sell pressure on Dangote Cement, which fell by a maximum of 10 per cent, alongside declines in tier-1 banks including Zenith Bank (-1.64 per cent), Access Holdings (-3.26 per cent), and FBN Holdings (-2.76 per cent).

Despite the negative close, market breadth stood positive, with 28 gainers outperforming 24 losers. Sovereign Insurance (+9.97 per cent) led the gainers’ chart, while Dangote Cement and Enamelware, both down 10 per cent, topped the losers’ list.

Market activity normalised after last Friday’s unusually large turnover, driven by off-market crosses in Cornerstone Insurance. Total volume traded declined sharply by 92.1 per cent to 388.2 million units, while total value traded fell by 26.3 per cent to N31.1bn. Tantalizer emerged as the most traded stock by volume with 57.1 million units, while Aradel Holdings dominated the value chart with N21.5bn worth of trades, accounting for 69 per cent of total market value. Recall that Tantalizer on Friday announced the signing of a multi-million-dollar deal with a US-based firm for a period of five years to export premium prawns and shrimps.

Trading remained largely bearish across most sectors. The InHHHdustrial Goods Index led sector declines, down 4.48 per cent, primarily due to weakness in Dangote Cement.

The Oil & Gas Index fell by 1.18 per cent with losses in Oando and Aradel, while the Banking Index dropped 1.01 per cent. The Consumer Goods Index edged down 0.02 per cent. In contrast, the Insurance Index closed positively, rising 0.07 per cent, supported by gains in Sovereign Insurance.

Cowry Asset Management, in its daily market note, attributed Monday’s downturn to profit-taking activities among investors. The firm noted that the drop in market capitalisation occurred despite the listing of 1.96 billion ordinary shares of Chams Holding via private placement, underscoring the depth of the sell pressure.

The investment house added that trading patterns reflected heightened retail activity. Although total trading volume plunged 92.64 per cent to 360.6 million units and value dropped 26.88 per cent to N30.9bn, the number of deals rose 15.83 per cent to 27,975, indicating increased participation through smaller-sized transactions.

Meanwhile, the October inflation data released by the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that Nigeria’s inflation continued its deceleration, moderating to 16.1 per cent year-on-year in October, compared with 18.0 per cent in the prior month.

This moderation was evident in the food and core baskets, which both settled at 13.1 per cent YoY and 18.7 per cent YoY, respectively (vs 16.9 per cent and 19.5 per cent in September). However, on a MoM basis, headline inflation rose by 0.9 per cent vs 0.7 per cent recorded in the prior period.