By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market on Monday started the week on a negative note as all-share index declined 0.11 percent to close at 29,779.17 points while market capitalisation dropped N10.95 billion to close at N9.92 trillion.

With this downward trend, current market Year-to-Date (YTD) returns stands at a negative 14.07 percent.

According to a Cordros market update, three (3) out of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices’ gained. “The Oil/Gas index had the most impressive performance with a 0.88 percent gain, while Industrial Goods and Consumer Goods indices followed with 0.03 percent and 0.02 percent gains respectively,” the report said.

On the contrary, the Banking index had the worst performance with a 0.19 percent drop and the Insurance index also recorded a 0.09 percent decline.

In terms of market breadth, the Nigerian bourse remained positive, as 22 gainers and 17 losers were recorded. Okomu Oil Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of N1.22; while courier firm, Red Star Express Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.18 kobo.

Turnover reported at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) shows that volume traded decreased by 23.14 percent to 263.86 million shares valued at N3.87billion and traded in 3,568 deals.

“Bearish trading may not be sustained as blue-chip stocks remain attractive,” the Cordros update affirmed.