Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Bears on Monday returned to the Nigerian bourse as benchmark index went down 0.16 percent lower than 0.90 percent recorded on Friday last week; as its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at a negative 0.83 percent.

Volatile trading persisted in the equities market, as Nigerian Stock Exchange all-share index (NSE ASI) closed at 40,984.11 points, while market capitalisation shed N21.52 billion to close at N13.52 trillion, as investors booked profit on stocks like PREMBREW, CUTIX, DANGCEM and IKEJAHOTEL, which witnessed price appreciations last week according to Cordros Capital daily market report.

According to the report, three (3) out of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices witnessed gains. The industrial index grew by 1.11 percent to top the gainers’ chart, the insurance index followed with a 0.74 percent growth, while the consumer goods index grew by 0.33 percent. On the other hand, the Banking index fell by 1.01 percent, while the Oil/Gas index dropped 0.28 percent.

In terms of market breadth, it was positive as the Nigerian equities market recorded with 29 gainers and 23 losers. Also, volume traded reduced by 40.55 percent to 344.98 million shares, valued at N4.14 billion and traded in 4,633 deals.

‘’We expect a gain in tomorrow’s session as the market rebound from today’s intra-day low (where ASI was down 0.80 percent as at 1:45pm) combined with successive positive market breadths signals improving risk appetite from investors,’’ Cordros report said.