By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday opened the week on a bearish note as the all-share index (ASI) closed at 27,629.90 points, while market capitalisation fell by N10.14 billion to N9.49 trillion.
“Today’s negative close further extended the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 6.65 percent and 3.53 percent respectively, according to Cordros daily market update.
The report says no respite yet for the Nigerian bourse which extended losses to a sixth consecutive day.
Cordros says at the close of transactions on the Nigerian equities market, the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices shed weight by 1.57 percent and 3.89 percent each, following losses in the shares of cement producers, Dangote Cement Plc and Lafarge Cement Wapco Plc by 2.51 percent and 0.69 percent apiece; while oil marketer, Forte Oil Plc and first dual listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc lost 9.74 percent and 5.00 percent respectively.
On the positive side, the Banking and Insurance indices closed in green gaining 1.72 percent and 0.51 percent each, boosted by interest in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc both climbing up by 1.82 percent and 1.28 percent respectively, financial HoldCo, FBN Holdings Plc grew by 1.77 percent.
On the Insurance side, Custodian & Allied Insurance Plc and AIICO Insurance Plc gained 4.99 percent and 4.62 percent each.
Similarly, rallies in the shares of beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc by 5.00 percent and Honeywell Flour Mills Plc by 4.86 percent drove the Consumer Goods index to 2.12 percent northwards.
At the close of trading on the domestic bourse, market breadth was positive, with 26 gainers and 17 losers posted, according to the NSE’s daily stock market report. Oando emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.51 kobo per share; while FO topped the losers chart with N18.99 per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded climbed by 48.01 percent to 378.51 million shares, valued at N2.27 billion, and traded in 3,519 deals.
“We expect bullish sentiments to return in tomorrow’s session, as today’s performance (e.g positive market breadth) indicates strengthening appetite, albeit marginally. Key risk to our outlook however is the increasing attractiveness of fixed income securities – owing to rising yields – which has the potential of keeping investors equities-averse,” the Cordros update affirmed.
