By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange rally halted on Wednesday on profit-taking activities as all-share index (ASI) dipped 2.98 percent to close at 29,454.09 basis points, while market capitalisation dropped by N311.14 billion to N10.13 trillion.

The decline at the local bourse came largely on losses recorded in the shares of oil marketing giant, Oando Plc, lenders Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc amongst others, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report says today’s gain returned the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) to a loss of 0.78 percent and extended the Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) loss to 15.01 percent.

Cordros affirms that in a reverse of events, all five (5) NSE sectoral indices recorded losses. It added that declines in the shares of financial services group FBN Holdings Plc by 5.15 percent, ZENITHBANK 4.99 percent and GTBank 4.98 percent led the Banking index to 3.94 percent depreciation, closely followed by the Industrial index, with a 2.48 percent loss.

In the same vein, the Oil/Gas and Consumer Goods indices also dropped 2.15 percent and 2.06 percent respectively, while the Insurance index shed 1.94 percent.

At the close of the day’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth posted a vast negative outlook, recording nine (9) and 46 losers.

Logistics Company Trans-Nationwide Express Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.10 kobo per share; while Oando topped the losers list with a loss of 0.97 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market at the close of today’s business climbed up by 57.18 percent to N356.25 million shares, valued at N2.6 billion and traded in 2,872 deals.

“We expect the market to maintain a downward trajectory,” Cordros report affirmed.