By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bulls Wednesday retreated at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on profit-taking as all-share index (ASI) dipped 1.17 percent to close at 29,870.86 basis points, while market capitalisation declined by N121.90 billion to N10.27 trillion.

With today’s loss, current market Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns on the Nigerian bourse now stands at 13.81 percent, while the index gained 0.63 percent and 3.67 percent on a Month-to Date (M-t-D) and Week-to-Date (W-t-D) basis respectively, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report says all five (5) of the NSE sectoral indices ended in red. “The Oil/Gas index topped the losers chart with a four (4) percent decline following losses in SEPLAT (-5 percent), FO (-5 percent) and OANDO (-4.97 percent), Cordros affirmed.

Similarly, the Banking index and Consumer Goods index followed suit with losses of 1.67 percent and 1.06 percent respectively. In the same vein, the Industrial index shed one (1) percent while the Insurance index dropped a marginal 0.11 percent.

At the close of today’s trading on the local bourse, market breadth posted a negative outlook; reporting 12 gainers and 37 losers.

Cable maker, Cutix Plc emerged top gainer with gain of 0.14 kobo per share; while sugar producer, Dangote Sugar Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.63 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market declined by 53.14 percent to N439.66 million shares, valued at N4.53 billion and traded in 4,345 deals.

“We expect losses to continue in tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros report affirmed.