The Nigerian Stock Market commenced the week’s trading session on a bearish note, as bears continue to have dominance on equities.

Continuous profit-taking activities majorly in the banking sector led to a 66-basis point decline, with the NGXASI closing at 66,882.64 points compared to the previous session’s 67,324.59 points.

This bearish performance was primarily driven by profit-taking in key stocks, including ACCESSCORP (-9.86%), OANDO (9.70%), GTCO (-0.42%), MTNN (-1.67%), ZENITHBANK (-1.54%), TRANSCORP (-2.53%), DANGSUGAR (-2.22%), and 30 other stocks.

Consequently, the year-to-date return settled at 30.50%, and the overall market capitalization decreased by 0.66%, closing at N36.61 trillion, resulting in a decrease in investor wealth by N241.88 billion.

Market activity for the day was mixed as volume traded shed by 60.31% to 408.19 million units, while value traded rose by 24.96% to N5.44 billion

Analysts at Futureview Research anticipated the market to trade mixed this week, as they anticipate continuous profit taking on stocks, with no positive recent news to move the market towards a bullish momentum.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Naira depreciated by 3.41% against the US Dollar in the I&E Window, closing at a rate of N773.25/USD.