The equities market snapped a 4-day losing streak today as investors bought the dip, capitalizing on the recent sell-off to re-enter top performing stocks. Market sentiment turned positive across sectors – last year’s laggard – NB(+2.45%) jumped on strong foreign demand and Nascon(+4.99%) closed on bid on domestic buying. Banking stocks also posted decent gains – FBNH(+4.85%) closed on bid following strong foreign demand, UBA(+2.48%), Access(+1.18%) also ticked higher on decent domestic demand. Top tier IIs such as Fidelity(+9.94%) and FCMB(+4.79%) closed on bid on speculative demand. Bucking today’s trend was Guaranty(-1.74%) which dropped on profit taking and Guinness(-3.53%) which fell on risk aversion.
Turnover closed strong at N7.1bn ($19.6m) buoyed by block trades in Guaranty($3.2m), FBNH($1.98m) and NB($1.78m). Today’s +0.56% gain trimmed weekly loss to -2.92%; ytd return closed at +14.46%, we expect the market to tick higher next week on fresh optimism.
