The market, which last closed on a positive note August 2nd, saw market cap rise to N13.4 trillion, but as at Tuesday August 14th market cap closed at N12.8 trillion.
The downward trend worsened Tuesday as sell-offs in ACCESS (-3.0%), FLOURMILL (-11.4%) and GUARANTY (-0.5%) weighed heavily on performance at the close of trade.
The All Share Index (ASI), which is the benchmark index, slid 31bps to 35,288.23 points, while year to date return contracted to -7.7 percent.
Activity level was mixed as volume traded improved 2.5 percent to 164.0 million units while value traded fell 27.2 percent to N1.6 billion.
The top traded stocks by volume were UBA (26.9m), LASACO (12.2m) and FBNH (11.5m) while GUARANTY (N289.7bn), UBA (N250.7bn) and STANBIC (N136.8bn) were the top traded stocks by value.
Sector performance was bearish, however, the consumer goods index trended northwards as buy interest in INTBREW (+5.2%) and UNILEVER (+0.8%) drove the index 0.2% higher.
On the flip side, the insurance index was the biggest loser, down 2.2% following sell pressures in CONTINSURE (-9.5%) and LINKASSURE (-13.9%); with a YTD loss of -0.2%, the index joins other indices returning a loss year to date.
Similarly, the banking and oil & gas indices shed 1.1 percent and 0.8 percent respectively, following price depreciation in ACCESS (-3.0%), GUARANTY (-0.5%) and ETERNA (-9.7%). The Industrial Goods index closed the day flattish, down 1bp.
Market sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.4x from 0.6x recorded the previous day as 13 stocks advanced against 33 stocks that declined.
The top performers for the day were MBENEFIT (+10.0%), CUSTODIAN (+9.9%) and LIVESTOCK (+9.5%) while ABCTRANS (-10.0%), UNIONDAC (-10.0%) and ETERNA (-9.7%) led laggards.
Analysts say they expect the bearish trend in the market to be sustained till midweek, adding that they do not rule out the possibility of a rebound by week end as investors seek bargain hunting opportunities.
