By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigerian equities continued its decline on the performance of the oil/gas sector as all-share index (ASI) on Tuesday dropped 0.25 percent to close at 30,330.58 basis points, while market capitalisation fell by N25.88 billion to close at N10.42 trillion.

The current losing streak has so far led the ASI to shed 2.84 percent in the month of October while extending the Year-to-Date loss to 12.48 percent, according to Cordros daily market report.

The report says three (3) of the five (5) sector indices recorded losses. The Oil/Gas sector reversed yesterday’s gains to a 1.67 percent loss following  the performance of first listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, SeplatPetroleum Development company Plc by 9.75 percent, oil marketing majors Mobil Nigeria Plc and Oando Plc by 2.31 percent and 1.44 percent respectively.

In the same vein, shares of insurers Continental Re-Insurance Plc and AIICO Insurance Plc dropped by four percent and 2.25 percent according. Also, the shares of cement producers, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc 4.70 percent and Dangote Cement Plc 0.90 percent went down to depress the Insurance and Industrial indices by 0.51 percent and 0.49 percent respectively, the Cordros report added.

While the Banking and Consumer Goods indices appreciated on the back of gains in shares of mid-tier lender, Unity Bank Plc by 4.41 percent, Skye Bank Plc by 3.60 percent and Fast Consumer Moving Goods (FCMG) Flour Mills Plc by 1.25 percent.

At the close of the day’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth maintained a negative outlook with 19 gainers and 22 losers recorded.

Cable maker, Cutix Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of 0.08 kobo while SEPLAT topped the losers chart with a loss of N24.36 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover, volume traded on the Nigerian equities market at the end of Tuesday’s trading decreased by 28.44 percent to N300.52 million shares, valued at N3.05 billion and traded in 3,112 deals.

“We expect investors to remain cautious ahead of corporate earnings releases for the period ended September 2015. Consequently we expect another negative close in tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros update affirmed.