The Nigerian stock market began the first trading session of December on a soft note, recording a loss of nearly two hundred billion naira in market value as investors adopted a cautious stance.
By the close of trading, the All Share Index had fallen to 143,210.33 points, reflecting a decline of 0.22 percent. The dip also pulled the year’s overall return down to 39.14 percent, while market capitalization settled at 91.09 trillion naira.
The News Chronicle learned that the downtrend was fuelled by renewed sell pressure in key consumer stocks, particularly International Breweries, Dangote Sugar, and Wapco. Their slide outweighed the mild gains posted by United Bank for Africa, Champion Breweries, and AIICO Insurance.
Market activity also slowed significantly, as both trading volume and value moderated compared to the previous session.
Cornerstone Insurance stood out as the most actively traded stock, exchanging more than nine hundred million units valued at over four and a half billion naira. Overall, the session produced nineteen gainers and twenty-six losers, confirming a negative market breadth that signalled weakened investor appetite at the start of the month.
According to market data, the decline was most visible in the Consumer Goods and Insurance sectors. International Breweries led the losers’ chart after dropping by ten percent, followed by RT Briscoe and Cornerstone Insurance, which experienced notable profit-taking following last week’s accumulation by institutional investors.
Despite this, analysts observed sizeable block trades in some financial stocks, pointing to continued interest in names such as Wema Bank, AccessCorp, Fidelity Bank, and Zenith Bank.
The weakness follows a brief recovery recorded on November 28, when the market added one hundred and eighty billion naira in value after gains in the Consumer, Banking, and Industrial sectors. However, the Insurance sector, which dominated turnover, still finished lower, reinforcing concerns about volatility within the segment.
Monday’s bearish open mirrors the pattern seen in recent weeks and suggests that investor sentiment remains fragile as December trading gathers pace.
