By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Bear run persisted on Thursday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as all-share index (ASI) dipped 0.38 percent to close at 34,832.62 points, while market capitalisation shed N45.01 billion to close at N11.87 trillion.

This is coming as a result of a session investors reacted positively to impressive banks’ results but ignored stocks in other sectors thereby bringing the current Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) gain decline further to 0.51 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.

According to the update, two (2) out of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices appreciated. “The Banking index topped the gainers’ list with a 1.13 percent gain as investors react positively towards impressive quarter one results released thus far,” the Cordros report added.

Similarly, the Oil/Gas index recorded a marginal gain of 0.33 percent. On the contrary, the Consumer Goods index dipped the most by 1.79 percent, while the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices followed suit with 0.75 percent and 0.73 percent declines respectively.

At the end of trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth closed on a negative note, according to the NSE daily gainers chart, 27 gainers and 27 losers were recorded respectively.

Oil and aviation services operator, Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.29 kobo, while insurer, Mansard Insurance Plc led the losers table with a loss of 0.16 kobo.

In terms of turnover, at the close of business today at the Nigerian equities market, volume traded increased by 147.49 percent to 719.73 million shares, valued at N3.86 billion and traded in 4,493 deals.

“We expect the results released by banks to ignite interests across the market,” the Cordros report added.