By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigerian equities on Wednesday maintained its losing streak as all-share index (ASI) plunged 2.32 percent to close at 28,137.65 points, while market capitalisation dipped by N230.04 billion to N9.67 trillion.

A Cordros daily market update says the free fall in the benchmark index on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) led the current Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) and Month-to-Date (M-t-D) returns to stand at 18.81 percent and 6.77 percent respectively.

The report says as investors’ appetite remained bland, all five (5) NSE Sectoral indices reported losses. “Once again, the Consumer Goods index led the losers chart with a 2.67 percent decline, while the Industrial index followed with 2.61 percent,” Cordros added.

Similarly, the Banking index also declined by 2.21 percent, while the Oil/Gas and the Insurance indices recorded losses of 1.63 percent and 0.70 percent respectively.

At the close of today’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth worsened, recording as six (6) gainers and 47 losers, according to Cordros.

Sugar producer, Dangote Cement Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.30 kobo per share; while soap and detergent maker, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of N2.48 per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market plunged by 20 percent to N483.71 million shares, valued at N5.09 billion and traded in 4,673 deals.

“Though prices are attractive at current levels, we expect the local bourse to depress further as investors await a positive catalyst,’ the Cordros report affirmed.