By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)–The Nigerian equities market on Wednesday closed in red and dragged by the Industrial Goods Index as all-share index (ASI) lowered by 0.06 percent to close at 25,630.62 points, while market capitalisation eased by N2.10 billion to N8.82 trillion.
“Today’s loss which is for a second successive session further cut the Month-to-Date gain to 2.27 percent and increased the Year-to-Date loss to 10.51 percent,” Cordros daily market update affirmed.
According to the update, the Banking and Insurance indices gained by 0.58 percent to 0.64 percent, on the back of respective price increases in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc by 1.89 and 1.47 percent apiece, while insurers, AIICO Insurance Plc by 2.47 percent and Axa Mansard Insurance Plc by 3.09 percent.
In the same vein, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors closed in green 0.11 percent and 0.01 percent each on positive investors’ interest in the shares of beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc and oil marketing firm, Conoil Plc gaining 0.42 and 4.81 percent respectively.
On the flip side, the Industrial Goods sector shed weight by 0.68 percent following losses recorded in the shares of cement producers, Dangote Cement Plc by 0.80 percent and Lafarge Wapco Cement Plc by 0.72 percent.
At the close of the session on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), market breadth remained positive, with 31 gainers and 20 losers, according to daily market statistics of the NSE.
For the second straight day, Tiger Branded Consumer Goods Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.46 kobo per share, while mid-tier lender, Wema Bank Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.07 kobo per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian bourse fell by 16.56 percent to 198.46 million shares, valued at N1.60 billion, and traded in 3,538 deals.
“Following today’s upbeat sentiment across major sector indices, coupled with a sustained improvement in market breadth, we expect the bulls to dominate in tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros update added.
