By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Gains recorded by blue chip companies such as Dangote Cement Plc, Forte Oil Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and brewer, Nigeria Breweries Plc trimmed the sustained decline on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with a marginal loss of 0.09 percent.

At the close of Wednesday’s session, the NSE all-share index (ASI) dipped to close at 33,462.34 points, while market capitalisation depreciated by N10.18 billion to close at N11.42 trillion.

With today’s loss, current market Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns on the Nigerian bourse stands at a negative 3.45 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.

The update says three (3) of the five (5) Sectoral indices appreciated. “The Oil/Gas index recorded the best performance with a 2.47 percent surge, with the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices also gaining 1.13 percent and 0.48 percent respectively,” the report added.

On the contrary, the Banking index dipped the most by 1.57 percent, while the Industrial Goods index recorded a 0.24 percent decline.

According to Cordros, at the end of the session, market breadth remained on a negative position recording 18 gainers and 22 losers.

Oil marketing firm, Forte Oil Plc topped the gainers chart with a gain of N14.63 per share, while Nigerian glass maker, Beta Glass Plc emerged top loser with a loss of N2.10 per share to close the session.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market surged by 160.08 percent to 588.29 million shares, valued at N4.12 trillion and traded in 3,863 deals.

“We are cautiously optimistic on the outcome of tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros daily market update affirmed.