By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bears on Tuesday resurfaced in the Nigerian Equities Market as the cement and oil & gas stocks depressed the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) all-share index (ASI) 0.07 percent to close at 25,646.56 points, while market capitalisation dropped by N62.51 billion to N8.82 trillion.
“Today’s loss trimmed the Month-to-Date gain to 2.33 percent and expanded the Year-to-Date loss to 10.46 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.
The update says at the close of the session, the Consumer Goods and Banking indices climbed up by 0.99 percent and 0.62 percent each; owing to gains recorded in the shares of beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc, soap and detergent producer, Unilever Nigeria Plc, Nigeria’s top tier lenders Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc closing by 0.69 percent, 4.98 percent, 0.36 percent and 0.06 percent apiece.
On the flipside, price declines in the shares of cement manufacturer, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc, insurer, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc and oil marketing firm, Forte Oil Plc by 2.80 percent, 4.43 percent and 4.22 percent weighed on the Industrial Goods, Insurance and Oil & Gas sectors by 2.42 percent, 0.81 percent and 1.63 percent respectively.
At the close of today’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth remained positive, with 32 gainers and 17 losers posted, according to the NSE’s daily stock market statistics.
Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.41 kobo per share, while publishing firm, University Press Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.28 kobo per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian Equities Market eased by 57.53 percent to 237.84 million shares, worth N1.36 billion, and traded in 3,885 deals.
“We expect a green close in tomorrow’s session, despite today’s loss, as the sustained positive trend in market breadth in the past six sessions (today inclusive) is indicative of healthy investor appetite,” the Cordros update affirmed.
