By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bears on Tuesday resurfaced on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) halting an 8-day gaining spree, following sell-offs in the Consumer and Industrial Goods spaces.

At the end of today’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, the all-share index (ASI) dipped 0.53 percent to close at 25,755.01 basis points, while market capitalisation dropped N46.76 billion to N8.86 trillion.

“Today’s loss eased the Month-to-Date gain to 4.82 percent and increased the Year-to-Date loss to 10.08 percent,” Cordros daily market update affirmed.

According to the update, the Industrial and consumer goods indices shed 0.44 percent and 0.40 percent respectively as cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc and beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc declined 2.90 percent and 2.00 percent apiece due to profit-taking activities.

On the contrary, price appreciations in shares of financial Holdco, FBN Holdings Plc, Nigeria’s top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and insurers, AIICO Insurance Plc and Axa Mansard Insurance Plc all gaining 1.37 percent, 1.31 percent, 2.56 percent and 2.80 percent respectively boosted the Financial Services sector, wherein the Banking and Insurance indices closed higher by 1.34 percent and 0.68 percent each.

Similarly, the Oil & Gas sector moved northward 0.64 percent on the back of a rally in the shares of oil marketing major, Oando Plc by 10.11 percent.

At the end of today’s session on the domestic bourse, market breadth remained positive, with 24 gainers and 13 losers posted, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics.

Oando emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.37 kobo per share; while United Capital Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.08 kobo per share.

In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian equities market rose by 25.24 percent to 233.42 million shares valued at N1.42 billion and traded in 3,224 deals.

“Despite today’s bearish performance, we expect the market to resume gains tomorrow, owing to (1) today’s positive market breadth, which is still indicative of upbeat sentiments, and (2) a rally in global oil prices to $40/barrel — amid report that major OPEC producers are privately starting to talk about a new oil price equilibrium of $50/barrel, which should boost investors’ confidence,” the Cordros update added.