Negative sentiments returned to the Lagos bourse today as investors booked profits following two consecutive days of gains driven in part by anticipation of the outcome of the MPC meeting which starts tomorrow.

The All Share Index lost 21bps to close at 31,267 points, even as the market capitalization lost N22.2bn to settle at N10.7trn.

Loss was largely driven by depreciation in highly capitalized stocks such as ETI (-10.9%), TOTAL (-1.2%), UBA (-1.2%), GUARANTY (-0.9%), NESTLE (-0.8%), WAPCO (-0.5%), ACCESS (-0.4%).

Market breadth was negative at 0.7x as 21 stocks gained against 32 losers just as the volume and value of transactions declined by 68.8 per cent and 83.6 per cent to 329.3mn units and N2.6bn (US$13.0mn) respectively.

The forecast is that the NGSE-ASI will trend lower tomorrow with bearish trades likely to dominate, as investors pause on equities in anticipation of outcomes of the MPC meeting

Consumer Goods sector defies market mood: The Consumer Goods sector defied the overall bearish mood in the market as it returned +0.7% on the back of appreciation in HONYFLOUR (8.8%), PZ (7.6%), FLOURMILL (2.7%) and NB (0.4%).

On the other hand, depreciation in the tier 1 banks such as ETI (-10.9%), UBA (-1.2%), GUARANTY (-0.9%), ACCESS (-0.4%) and ZENITHBANK (-0.2%) depressed the Financial Services sector as it returned -1.9%.

The Industrial Goods sector also closed in the red with -0.1% daily return as decline in WAPCO (-0.5%) weighed heavily on sector performance while the Oil and Gas sector closed flat.

*Culled from daily report of United Capital Plc