By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday maintained a bearish run as all-share index (ASI) declined by 1.36 percent to close at 24,090.98 basis points, while market capitalisation dropped by N114.32 billion to N8.29 trillion.
Cordros daily market update says today’s trend came on the heels of investors lightening positions in key Banking and Oil and Gas counters, paring the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) gain to 0.73 percent and increasing the Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) loss to 15.89 percent.
According to the report, three (3) of the five (5) sector indices declined, the Banking and Oil and Gas sectors climbed down by 1.00 percent and 0.33 percent respectively, following price declines in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lender, Zenith Bank Plc by 0.09 percent, financial HoldCo, FBN Holdings Plc by 2.94 percent. Mobil Nigeria Plc dropped 0.67 percent and Oando Plc by 4.90 percent respectively.
In the same vein, the Industrial Goods index depreciated by 0.51 percent on the back of a loss in the shares of cement producer and NSE’s most capitalised firm Dangote Cement Plc by 4.88 percent.
Conversely, price appreciations in the shares of beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc by 0.44 percent and reinsurer, Continental Reinsurance Plc by 3.33 percent boosted the Consumer Goods sector by 0.44 percent and Insurance sector by 0.16 percent.
At the close of today’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth sustained a negative outlook, with 13 gainers and 26 losers, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics. Mid-tier lender, Unity Bank Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.05 kobo per share, while Diamond Bank Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.11 kobo per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian equities market eased by 94.16 percent to 201.73 billion shares valued at N1.26 billion in 2,559 deals.
“We expect losses to continue in tomorrow’s session, as market activities remain indicative of profit-taking,” the Cordros update affirmed.
