The Nigerian equities market ended the week in negative territory, extending its declines for a fourth consecutive session, with the NGX-ASI falling 0.16% to 242,619.20 points, bringing its weekly decline to 1.20%. Market capitalisation followed the index lower, shedding 0.16% to NGN156.62 trillion, representing roughly NGN257.06 billion in lost market value. The tone of the market was clearly defensive, with selling pressure concentrated across several key sectors.

Market breadth reinforced the bearish picture. 21 stocks appreciated against 30 decliners, leaving the breadth ratio at 0.70x, while the UD ratio collapsed to 0.19x. In other words, trading volume was heavily skewed towards declining stocks. The strongest advances came from INTENEGINS (+9.92%), TRANSEXPR (+9.65%), GUINEAINS (+6.67%) and JAPAULGOLD (+5.36%), while FTGINSURE (-9.31%), JOHNHOLT (-9.00%), DANGSUGAR (-7.79%) and RTBRISCOE (-7.94%) were among the biggest decliners.