By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Bulls on Tuesday maintained hold on Nigerian equities; as market capitalisation gained N241.56 billion in two (2) days to close at N9.43 trillion at the end of the session.

With this gain, the Nigerian Stock Exchange all-share index (NSE ASI) closed at 28,452.60 points, bringing current market Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns to a negative 17.90 percent.

“Optimism amongst investors grew stronger and helped the market outperform in today’s session, as depicted by the benchmark index which grew by 2.61 percent,” a Cordros report said.

The report says all of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices appreciated. “The Banking index recorded the best performance with a 3.89 percent increase, while Consumer Goods and Oil/Gas indices followed suit with 2.78 percent and 1.77 percent gains respectively,” Cordros added.

Similarly, the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices gained 1.26 percent and 0.29 percent respectively.

At the end of the session market breadth at the Nigerian bourse improved as 25 gainers and 17 losers were recorded. Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of N2.72; while Dangote Flour Mills Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.35 kobo.

In terms of turnover, the NSE reported that volume traded increased by 58.03 percent to 500.19 million shares, valued at N3.5 billion and traded in 4,199 deals.

“Continued bargain hunting for high-capped defensive stocks is expected to grow stronger, as investors commit to these as best bets in a highly volatile market,” the Cordros market update affirmed.