By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The bearish sentiment in the local bourse for the past three days was on Wednesday halted on bargain hunting by investors.
At the close of trading activities, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a total of 18 gainers and 16 losers, leaving the market breadth positive.
Business Post correspondent reports that the year-to-date return finished at -5.13 percent on Wednesday, with the All-Share Index (ASI) rising marginally by 0.07 percent or 18.65 points to end at 25,496.71 points and the market capitalisation gaining N6.5 billion to close at N8.822 trillion.
On the price movement chart, Nigerian Breweries topped the gainers’ log after progressing by N1.50k to finish at N123.50k per share.
Flour Mill advanced by 49k to close at N17.99k per share and GTBank appreciated by 42k to finish at N24.87k per share.
Also, Oando rose by 16k to finish at N5.48k per share, while First Bank Holdings went up by 10k to end at N3.19k per share.
On the losers’ table, Seplat took the top spot with a loss of N8 to close at N390 per share, while Lafarge depreciated by N2.37k to end at N45.13k per share.
Mobil went down by N1.99k to close at N324.1k per share, Unilever declined by N1.75k to end at N33.25k per share and Ashaka Cement slumped by 47k to finish at N9.3k per share.
According to our correspondent, investors staked N1.3 billion on a total of 247.7 million shares transacted in 2,909 deals.
Dipo Olowookere 
Adedapo Adesanya