By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigerian stocks ended the session on a downward trend as all-share index (ASI) declined by 2.30 percent to close at 29,789.59 points, while market capitalisation lost N232 billion to close at N9.83 trillion.

With this decline, current Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) and Month-to-Date (M-t-D) returns at the Nigerian bourse depreciated   to -27.92 percent and -13.76 percent respectively.

Cordros in its market update reported that this development saw the Nigerian equities market maintaining its downtrend for the seventh consecutive session, as massive sell-offs in the entire sectors led to the benchmark index closing below the 30,000 mark for the first time since January 15, 2013.

According to the report, all of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices dipped. Industrial Goods index led the losers chart with a 3.06 percent decline, while the Banking and Consumers Goods indices followed with 2.76 percent and 1.18 percent downtrend respectively. While, the Insurance and Oil/Gas indices emerged last with a 0.81 percent and 0.25 percent drop respectively.

At the end of the session, the Nigerian equities market breadth closed on a negative session as it recorded nine (9) gainers and 34 losers. Mobile banking operator, eTranzact International Plc emerged top gainers with a gain of 0.13 kobo, while courier services firm, Red Star Express Plc led the losers chart with a loss of 0.39 kobo.

Similarly, volume traded went down by 29.94 percent to 261.05 million shares, valued at N3.30 billion traded in 4,108 deals.

‘’The negative run is not expected to taper as positive catalysts remain unseen,’’ the Cordros update affirmed.