By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday halted a two-day consecutive gain on selloffs across major counters.

This was mainly the result of late selloffs in the shares of Nigeria’s most capitalised company and cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc dropping 148.84 points as the market rose as high as 28,292.01pts (+0.27 percent) during intraday. “The decline in DANGCEM combined with GUARANTY (-81pts) offset the gains in ZENITHBANK (+72pts), NB (+34pts) and FO (29pts),” InvestmentOne market report said.

According to the report, market breadth index turned negative, at -0.04x, for the first time in four trading sessions as 22 stocks declined compared to 18 stocks that gained. Oil marketer, Oando Plc gained by 7.14 percent and was the market’s best performer while Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc lost by 9.09 percent and led the losers’ chart.

InvestmentOne reports like the previous session, major sector performance was mixed. The Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices increased by 3.41 percent and 0.57 percent respectively, while the Industrial and Banking sectors shed 0.88 percent and 0.23 percent respectively.

The update says market activity surged today with total volume up 82 percent while total value inched up 21 percent as investors exchanged 410 million units of shares worth N3.62 billion. The report said lender, Diamond Bank Plc gained 3.45 percent and was the most actively traded stock, accounting for c.35 percent of total volume.

“Going forward, we see the current weak economic outlook plus the attractive yields on FI instruments constituting a drag on the market’s performance in the near term. However, we advise that investors to gradually build positions in quality names for a medium to long term horizon,” the InvestmentOne update affirmed.