By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) all-share index (ASI) on Tuesday inched down 0.56 percent on sell-offs to close at 31,269.71 basis points, while market capitalisation dipped by N60.57 billion to close at N10.72 trillion.
This is coming on the heels of price depreciations across several sectors which led to the current Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns on the Nigerian equities market to 9.77 percent, while the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) gain fell to 3.61 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.
The report says demand for the shares of lenders Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc led to a 0.45 percent decline in the Banking index, the sole gainer amongst the five (5) NSE sector indices.
On the contrary, the Consumer Goods index topped the losers’ chart with a 0.93 percent depreciation, the Industrial index followed with a 0.47 percent decline, while the Insurance and Oil/Gas indices fell by 0.38 percent and 0.33 percent respectively.
At the close of Tuesday’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth remained negative as 15 gainers and 27 losers were recorded.
Drug maker Evans Medical Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.08 kobo per share; while oil marketing company, Conoil Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of N3.59 per share.
In terms of turnover, volume traded grew by 91.54 percent to 280.99 million shares, valued at N2.91 billion and traded in 3,716 deals.
“We expect bearish trading to persist as a positive catalyst remains unseen,” the Cordros report affirmed.
