The Nigerian equities market ended Tuesday’s session on a cautious note as profit-taking in banking and oil and gas stocks offset gains in the industrial and insurance sectors, leaving the overall market performance largely unchanged.

The NGX All-Share Index slipped marginally by 0.004 percent to close at 147,710.96 basis points, while market capitalization shed N3.99 billion naira to settle at N93.76 trillion.

The month-to-date and year-to-date returns stood at 3.05 percent and 43.05 percent, respectively, reflecting sustained investor optimism despite intermittent pullbacks.

Market sentiment remained negative, as 35 stocks declined compared to 23 gainers, translating to a market breadth of 0.7×.

Austin Laz which fell by 7.9 percent and Deap Capital which dropped 6.,7 percent led the losers’ chart, while Regal Insurance and Prestige Assurance topped the gainers’ list.

Sectoral performance mirrored the cautious mood, with three of the five major indices closing positive.

The Insurance index led gainers with a 1.01percent rise, driven by renewed interest in Regal Insurance which gained 8.8 percent and Prestige Assurance which appreciated by 6.7 percent. The Industrial Goods and Consumer Goods indices also advanced by 0.30 percent and 0.10 percent respectively, buoyed by gains in BUA Cement which rose by 0.06 percent and International Breweries which climbed 3.6 percent.

On the flip side, the Banking sector dipped by 0.37 percent as selloffs in United Bank for Africa which lost 1.2 percent dragged the index lower, while the Oil and Gas sector weakened by 0.09. The Commodity index closed flat.

Market activity showed a mixed pattern as total traded volume fell by 20.73 percent to 495.10 million units, while the total number of deals declined by 18.75 percent to 25,645. However, transaction value rose sharply by 28.71 percent to N17.34 billion, indicating a shift toward high-value trades.

Fidelity Bank emerged as the most traded stock by volume with 50.90 million shares, while MTN Nigeria dominated in value terms with N2.46 billion naira worth of transactions.

It is noted that the market’s sideways movement reflects cautious trading ahead of upcoming third-quarter earnings releases. Analysts, however, expect bargain-hunting in fundamentally sound stocks to support a mild rebound in subsequent sessions.

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