By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bears on Wednesday sustained its hold on the Nigerian equities market for three straight days as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) all-share index (ASI) dipped 1.37 percent to close in red at 27,098.18 points, while market capitalisation dropped further by N129.58 billion to N9.31 trillion.
“Today’s negative close consequently extended the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 2.04 percent and 5.39 percent respectively, Cordros daily market update affirmed.
The update says at the close of the session on the domestic bourse, selloffs in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc by a loss of 1.07 percent and 0.68 percent each weighed down the Banking sector to a negative of 0.26 percent. While the Consumer Goods sector declined by 2.22 percent on depreciations recorded in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier brewers, Nigerian Breweries Plc and Guinness Nigeria Plc by 4.78 percent and 0.46 percent apiece.
Similarly, the Insurance and Industrial indices dipped 1.06 percent and 1.81 percent respectively, following price plunge in the shares of reinsurer, Continental Reinsurance Plc and insurer, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc both losing by 4.29 percent and 3.67 percent each. Also, a price decline in the shares of cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc by 2.94 percent impacted negatively on the Industrial Goods index.
Cordros reported on the positive, the Oil & Gas index gained 2.71 percent buoyed by gains in the shares of oil marketing majors, Oando Plc and Forte Oil Plc by 7.89 percent and 5.00 percent respectively.
At the close of the session, market breadth sustained a negative outlook, with 16 gainers and 28 losers declared, according to the NSE daily market statistics. Mid-tier lender, Unity Bank Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 10 kobo per share; while Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 47 kobo per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded increased by 42.44 percent to 261.01 million shares, valued at N1.22 billion, and traded in 3,591 deals.
“We expect sentiments to remain weakened in the coming session,” the Cordros update added.
