By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market on Tuesday dipped further 0.64 percent following drags in the Oil/Gas, Consumer Goods and Banking sectors indices.
Cordros daily market update says that all-share index (ASI) at the end of today’s session closed at 28,981.12 basis points, while market capitalisation decreased by N64.26 billion to close at N9.96 trillion.
The report affirmed that today’s decline extended the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) and Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) losses to 0.67 percent and 16.38 percent respectively.
According to Cordros, three (3) of the five (5) sector indices declined, it reported the Oil/Gas sector dipped by 1.83 percent following depreciations in the shares of oil marketers, Forte Oil Plc and Oando Plc by 2.76 percent and 0.24 percent respectively; while First listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc went down 2.19 percent.
The update affirmed that the Consumer Goods and Banking sectors declined by 1.36 percent and 1.15 percent respectively following activities in the shares of Flour Mills Nigeria Plc and brewer, Nigerian Breweries Plc by 4.13 percent and 4.07 percent respectively, while, Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Zenith Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc went down 4.01 percent and 1.62 percent, amongst others.
On the contrary, the Industrial sector with a gain of 0.38 percent topped the gainers chart following share increases in the shares of Chemical and Allied Product Plc, cement maker Dangote Cement Plc and paint producer, Berger Paints Plc by 2.63 percent, 0.62 percent and 0.10 percent respectively. While gains in the shares of insurers, Nem Insurance Plc and AIICO Insurance Plc by 1.45 percent and 1.11 percent pushed the Insurance sector to a 0.13 percent gain, the Cordros update added.
At the close of the day’s session, market breadth maintained a negative outlook with 18 gainers and 25 losers. Soap and detergent producer, Unilever Nigeria Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of N3.38 kobo per share; while indigenous marine, aviation and logistics services firm Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.13 kobo per share.
In terms of turnover, volume traded decreased by 71.79 percent to 317.41 million shares worth N1.81 billion in 3,721 deals.
“We expect gains to resume tomorrow as market breadth continues to improve,” the Cordros update affirmed.
