By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – The Nigerian equities market on Monday commenced the week on a positive note as all-share index (ASI) inched up 0.29 percent on the gains witnessed across the Oil/Gas and Consumer Goods sectors.

At the close of business, benchmark index on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 33,720.64 points, while market capitalisation grew by N33.35 billion to close at N11.51 trillion.

With today’s gain, current market Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns stands at a negative 2.70 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report says three (3) of the five (5) NSE Sectoral indices gained. “The Oil/Gas index grew the most by 1.01 percent, while the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices also rose by 0.36 percent and 0.13 percent respectively,” the report affirmed.

On the contrary, the Insurance Index topped the losers’ chart with a loss of 0.23 percent, while the Banking index followed with a marginal loss of 0.17 percent.

The NSE reported that at the end of transactions today on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth recorded 24 equities gained; while 21 lost.

Brewer, Guinness Nigeria Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of N17.00 per share; while soap and detergent maker, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc topped the losers list with a loss of N3.00 per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market declined by 3.59 percent to 229.72 million shares, valued at N4.85 billion and traded in 3,482 deals.

“We expect profit-taking (and hence market decline) on the gains recorded in the last three sessions,” the Cordros report added.