By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities on Monday reeled under sustained losses as it opened the week on a bearish note, closing 0.34 percent lower on investment declines.
At the close of the day’s session, the all share index (ASI) closed at 24,765.10 points, while market capitalisation dropped by N29.24 billion to N8.52 trillion.
“Today’s loss further increased the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 2.14 percent and 13.54 percent respectively,” Cordros daily market update affirmed.
According to the report, sell-offs in the shares of oil marketing firms, Forte Oil Plc and Oando Plc led to declines by 9.13 percent and 1.13 percent, causing the Oil & Gas index to loss 4.19 percent.
In the same vein, declines recorded in the shares of insurer, AIICO Insurance Plc and reinsurer, Continental Reinsurance Plc by 2.56 percent and 1.96 percent apiece led to the Insurance sector closing in red by 1.54 percent.
On the contrary, the Banking, Consumer and Industrial Goods indices gained 0.25 percent, 0.15 percent and 0.04 percent respectively, following price appreciations in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc by 1.13 percent, beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc 0.37 percent and cement producer, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc gaining 4.93 percent each.
The Cordros update reports that at the close of the session on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), market breadth posted a negative outlook with 15 gainers and 25 losers, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics. Educational publishing firm, Learn Africa Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.04 kobo per share; while Forte Oil topped the losers table with a loss of N25.12 per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian Bourse dipped by 23.34 percent to 144.68 million shares, worth N766.02 million, and traded in 2,729 deals.
“We expect the bulls to resurface in tomorrow’s session, as we await the release of additional Q1-2016 earnings results,” the Cordros report added.
