By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Bears sustained its hold on Nigerian equities as all-share index (ASI) on Thursday declined 0.24 percent to close at 29,687.93points while market capitalisation reduced by N23.69 billion to close at N 9.89 trillion.

With this loss, current market Year-to-Date (YTD) at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) declined to 14.34 percent.

This is coming on the heels of sales of blue chip stocks by investors such as oil marketer Forte Oil Plc, first listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, brewer, Guinness Nigeria Plc.

Others are lenders FBN Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank plc.

A Cordros daily market update reported that three (3) out of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices appreciated.

Similarly, the report says the Insurance index climbed up again, leading the gainers’ chart with a 1.47 percent increase, while the Industrial Goods and Oil/Gas indices followed with 0.67 percent and 0.10 percent gains respectively.

Contrary to this, the Banking index had the worst performance with a 1.34 percent decline, while Consumer Goods index also decreased by 0.33 percent.

In terms of market breadth, the Nigerian bourse closed on a negative note, as 15 gainers and 24 losers were recorded. Insurer, Mansard Insurance Plc led the gainers chart with a gain of 0.15 kobo; while R.T. Briscoe Nigeria Plc emerged top loser with a loss of 0.06 kobo.

Turnover at the Nigerian equities market shows that volume traded increased 78.82 percent to 410.59 million shares valued at N2.47 billion and traded in 4,030 deals.

“Bearish trading will continue tomorrow, as signs for a possible rebound remain unseen,” the Cordros report affirmed.