By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market on Tuesday closed in red, as the all share index (ASI) dipped 0.26 percent to close at 27,034.05 points, while market capitalisation dropped further by N24.01 billion to N9.28 trillion.
“Today’s performance further increased the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 2.27 percent and 5.61 percent respectively,” according to Cordros daily market update.
The update says investor sentiment remained dampened amid disappointing economic data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) earlier today, reporting that inflation rate (in May) rose sharply to a 6-year high of 15.6 percent from 13.7 recorded in April.
According to Cordros, at the close of trading, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices declined by 1.03 percent and 0.99 percent each, owing to selloffs in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc by 2.63 percent and 0.33 percent apiece. On the Consumer Goods index, beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc and food and beverage producer, Cadbury Nigeria Plc depreciated 2.31 percent and 3.61 percent respectively.
The report says on the positive side is the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices gaining 1.20 percent and 0.80 percent each buoyed by price appreciations recorded in the shares of cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc by 0.12 percent and reinsurer, Continental Reinsurance Plc by 4.76 percent.
Cordros reported that similarly, positive investor interest in the shares of oil marketing majors, Total Nigeria Plc and Forte Oil Plc by 3.09 percent and 0.01 percent apiece caused the Oil & Gas index to close in green by 0.19 percent.
At the closing of the session on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth turned positive, with 24 gainers and 17 losers declared, according to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) daily market statistics.
Insurer, Nem Insurance Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.05 percent per share; while drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of N1.77 per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian equities market increased by 12.05 percent to 170.69 million shares, worth N2.42 billion, and traded in 3,153 deals.
“We expect negative sentiment to persist in tomorrow’s session,” Cordros report affirmed.
