By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday opened the week on a bullish note as the all-share index (ASI) advanced 0.01 percent to close at 25,743.03 points.

“Today’s positive performance increased the Month-to-Date gain to 1.84 percent and reduced the Year-to-Date loss to -10.45 percent, according to Cordros daily market update.

The report says the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices rallied 0.05 percent and 3.57 percent respectively as investors bought into food and beverage producer, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and beer maker, Nigerian Breweries Plc as both gained 2.63 percent and 1.36 percent each.

Oil marketing firms, Forte Oil Plc which lead the gainers table and Total Nigeria Plc also gained 10.24 and 10.11 percent apiece.

According to Cordros, there was no respite for the Banking and Insurance indices which lost by 0.51 percent and 1.16 percent respectively following selloffs in the shares of top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and mid tier bank, Wema Bank Plc as both depreciated 2.09 percent and 3.51 percent each.

Insurers, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc and AIICO Insurance Plc declined by 4.65 percent and 3.39 percent respectively; while cement manufacturer, Lafarge Cement Wapco Plc dropped 4.22 percent.

The Cordros update reports that at the close of the trading session on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth returned to negative, with 15 gainers compared to 23 losers, according to data from the NSE. Forte Oil emerged the top gainer with a gain of N6.68 per share; while Nigeria’s top brewer, Guinness Nigeria Plc topped the losers list with a loss of N8.67 per share.

In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian equities market fell by 69.65 percent to 175.1 million shares, valued at N3.1 billion, and traded in 3,048 deals.

“We expect the index to close positive in tomorrow’s session,” the Cordros update said.