By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday commenced the month of December on a negative note as benchmark index declined 1.82 percent to at 33,914.25 points, while market capitalisation dropped by N207.59 billion to close at N11.20 trillion.

With the loss which resulted in sell-offs across various sectors of the Nigerian equities market, the year-to-date returns currently stands at a negative 16.42 percent.

A review of the sectoral performance shows that the Insurance index, which gained 2.81 percent, remained the only NSE sectoral index to record a growth.

While, the Oil/Gas index topped the losers’ chart with 2.92 percent depreciation, followed by the Industrial index a fall of 1.78 percent.  Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Banking indices lost 1.59 percent and 1.01 percent respectively.

In terms of market breadth, the Nigerian bourse posted negative returns as with 33 losers and 17 gainers. Mansard Insurance Plc led the gainers table as it climbed up 0.26 kobo  gaining 8.25 percent, while oil marketer, Oando Plc topped the losers table with a loss of N1.96

Market turnover at the NSE shows that volume traded decreased 36.95 percent to 213.61 million shares worth N4.44 billion and traded in 4,398 deals.

According to Cordros report ‘’we expect bearish trading to continue tomorrow as foreign investors react to the brisk depreciation in the naira.’’