By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday opened the week on a negative note as all-share index (ASI) dipped 0.35 percent to close at 34,151.81 points, while market capitalisation declined by N40.87 billion to close at N11.60 trillion.

This is coming on the heels of growing concerns around the state of the economy which continued to weigh on investor sentiment, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report affirmed that today’s decline extended the current bearish streak to its fifth consecutive session since 19th May 2015, bringing the current Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns to a negative 1.46 percent.

According to Cordros, the Industrial Goods index emerged the only gainer with a marginal gain of 0.14 percent. On the contrary, the Banking index topped the losers’ list with a 0.68 percent decrease, while the Consumer Goods and Oil/Gas indices both shed 0.13 percent respectively, the Cordros report added. Similarly, the Insurance index recorded a marginal decline of 0.01 percent in the review period.

At the close of transactions on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth remained on a negative note, reporting 21 gainers and 26 losers.

Foam maker, Vono Products Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.12 kobo per share, while transport company, ABC Transport Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.03 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market at the close of today’s business increased by 9.12 percent to 220.48 million shares, valued at N2.75 billion and traded in 3,612 deals.

“We expect cautious trading to continue, as investors await clarity and stability in the economy,” the Cordros report added.