By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) all-share index (ASI) on Wednesday declined 0.88 percent to close at 33,255.67points, while market capitalisation dipped by N97.41 billion to close at N10.98 trillion.

Cordros report affirmed that sell-offs in big names like cement maker, Dangote Cement Plc, lenders, Stanbic IBTC Plc and Zenith Bank Plc led to the current state of the nation’s stock exchange. Also, oil marketer, Forte Oil Plc and brewers, Guinness Nigeria Plc brought the year-to-date (YTD) returns at the Nigerian equities market to a negative 19.53 percent.

Despite the loss recorded at the end of transactions on the Nigerian bourse, the numbers of stocks that gained were more than those that closed in negative. The NSE reported 22 gainers and 19 losers. Soap manufacturers PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc led the gainers chart with N2.97, while insurance firm Custody Insurance Plc emerged top losers with 0.37 kobo.

In terms of sectoral performance, three (3) of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices reflected the broader market performance.

According to Cordros, the Industrial index topped the losers’ chart with a 1.36 percent decline,, the Oil/Gas index followed with a 0.49 percent loss, while the Banking index dipped by 0.35 percent.

However, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices gained 1.10 percent and 0.27 percent respectively.

A review of the turnover on the Nigerian bourse shows that volume traded climbed up 18.33 percent to 258.73 million shares, valued at N4.79 billion and traded in 3,965 deals.

‘’The positive market breadth recorded in today’s session signals that the market may have found support and we expect this to repeat tomorrow, suggesting a positive outlook,’’ the Cordros report affirmed.