By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Investors traded cautiously on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday as all-share index (ASI) dipped marginally 0.01 percent to close at 33,381.45 basis points, while market capitalisation declined by N1.07 billion to close at N11.395 billion.

This is coming on the heels of price gains by blue-chips such as oil marketing firm Forte Oil Plc, first listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc conglomerate Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc and Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc been offset by losses reported in the Consumer Goods, Industrial and Insurance sectors of the NSE.

With today’s marginal loss, current market Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) and Month-to-Date (M-t-D) returns on the Nigerian bourse stands at a negative 3.68 percent and 2.71 percent respectively, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report affirmed that two (2) of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices appreciated. “The Oil/Gas index topped the gainers’ chart with a 2.92 percent increase, while the Banking index also added 0.36 percent,” Cordros added.

On the contrary, the Insurance index emerged top loser with a loss of 0.53 percent drop, the Industrial index followed with a 0.35 percent loss, while the Consumer goods index lost 0.35 percent.

At the close of today’s session on the NSE, market breadth posted a negative outlook with 17 gainers and 26 losers recorded.

Nigeria’s largest and first Indigenous Book Publisher, University Press Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.45 kobo per share; while foam maker, Vono Products Plc topped the losers chart with a chart of 0.12 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover at the Nigerian equities market, volume traded at the close of business dropped by 25.18 percent to 208.09 million shares valued at N2.24 billion and traded in 3,787 deals.

“Investors are likely to remain cautious,” the Cordros report said.