By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market on Wednesday maintained its positive streak for the second day running as all-share index (ASI) climbed up by 0.16 percent to close at 29,907.66 points, while market capitalisation grew by N16.19 billion to N9.96 trillion.

With the current gain, Year-to-Date (YTD) returns at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) stands at a negative 13.70 percent.

According to Cordros market update, three (3) out of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices gained. The report affirmed that the Banking index had the best performance with a 0.35 percent gain, while the Consumer Goods and Oil/Gas indices followed with 0.15 percent and 0.14 percent growth respectively.

On the contrary, the Industrial Goods index declined the most by 0.31 percent, followed by the Insurance index which closed 0.14 percent lower.

In terms of market breadth, the Nigerian stocks closed on positive note as 23 gainers and 18 losers were recorded. Ikeja Hotel Plc led the gainers chart with a gain of 0.27 kobo; while courier services firm, Red Star Express Plc emerged top loser with a loss of 0.18 kobo.

At the end of today’s trading, turnover at the Nigerian bourse shows that volume traded dipped by 48.15 percent to 242.77 million shares, valued at N3.67 billion and traded in 3,892 deals.

“The present market rally is likely to continue in tomorrow’s session, as investors take advantage of attractively priced blue-chip stocks,” the Cordros update affirmed.