Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday maintained a downward slope, on declines of blue chip stocks such as Forte Oil Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and beer maker, Nigerian Breweries Plc.

At the close of business today on the Nigerian equities market, the NSE all-share index (ASI) declined by 0.50 percent to close at 34,427.12 points, while market capitalisation shed N58.85 billion to N11.69 trillion, according to Cordros daily market update.

With this trend, current market Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns on the Nigerian bourse stands at a negative 0.66 percent.

The report says two (2) of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices appreciated. “The Insurance and Banking indices recorded marginal gains of 0.47 percent and 0.06 percent respectively,” the Cordros update added.

On the contrary, the Oil/Gas and Consumer Goods indices depreciated significantly with 1.42 percent and 1.13 percent respectively. Similarly, the Industrial Goods index also went down by 0.23 percent.

At the close of business, the NSE market breadth posted a negative outlook; recording 20 gainers and 28 losers. Salt producer, National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc (NASCON) topped the gainers chart with a gain of 0.82 kobo per share, while book publishers, Academy Press Plc emerged top loser with a loss of 0.05 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market increased by 91.41 percent to 473.57 million shares, valued at N3.45 billion and traded in 5,110 deals.

“The marginal daily market losses leave stock prices at levels we do not expect to attract bargain hunting,” the Cordros daily update said.