By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The bears on Thursday returned to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as benchmark index fell by 1.80 percent to close at 27,379.95 points.

“Today’s performance increased the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 2.25 percent and 4.41 percent respectively,” according to Cordros daily market update.

The report says the Industrial Goods and Banking indices shed weight by 2.37 percent and 0.70 percent apiece, following losses recorded in the shares of cement manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc and Zenith Bank Plc by 4.71 percent 1.86 percent respectively.

Similarly, the Consumer Goods index dipped 0.42 percent to close lower, on the back of price declines in the shares of beermaker, Nigerian Breweries Plc by 0.78 percent and Honeywell Flour Mills Plc by 2.99 percent.

On the positive side, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices climbed up by 0.22 percent and 0.13 percent each which bucked the negative trend.

Market breadth was negative, with 11 gainers and 25 losers reported, according to daily market statistics from the domestic bourse. Chemical & Allied Product Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of N1.36 per share, while lender, Skye Bank Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.05 percent to end the session.

In terms of turnover, Cordros reports that total volume traded on the NSE declined by 6.49 percent to 215.34 million shares, valued at N1.42 billion, and traded in 2,939 deals.

“In the absence of positive catalysts, we anticipate another session of loss tomorrow,” the Cordros update affirmed.