By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Stocks on the Nigerian bourse Thursday depleted further by 1.60 percent as all-share Index (ASI) closed at 29,393.77 basis points, while market capitalisation declined by N164.07 billion to N10.11 trillion.

“Further decline in the benchmark index led the Month-to-Date performance to a loss of 0.98 percent, whilst extending the Year-to-Date loss to 15.19 percent,” Cordros daily market affirmed.

According to the report, as investors’ appetite weakened further, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dragged on losses recorded in the shares of lender, Access Bank Plc 5.10 percent, cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc five (5)  percent and Fast Consumer Moving Goods (FCMG)  company, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc five (5) percent.

Cordros reports that only one (1) of the five (5) NSE sectoral indices recorded gains. “The Industrial index led the losers chart with a 4.23 percent decline. The Consumer goods and Oil/Gas indices followed with respective losses of 0.61 percent and 0.35 percent,” the report added.

Similarly, the Insurance index lost 0.14 percent, while the Banking index climbed up by 0.14 percent following two (2) consecutive losing sessions.

At the close of today’s trading on the local bourse, market breadth recorded a positive outlook with 24 gainers and 23 losers.

Foam maker, Vono Products Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.09 kobo per share; while cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of N8.70 per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market dipped by 37.75 percent to N273.68 million shares, valued at N2.90 billion and traded in 3,733 deals.

“We expect the local bourse to depress further as investors await a positive catalyst,” Cordros affirmed.