A combination of increased speculative trading and gains in index heavyweight – Dangcem helped sustain the market rebound, reversing some of last week’s losses. Cement major – Dangcem gave the index a big boost , advancing +3.05% on a last minute buying by a domestic investor. Banking stocks also posted decent gains – FBNH(+2.71%) and Stanbic(+2.27%) rose on decent demand; bullish sentiment dominated trading in tier II banks – Diamond(+9.85%), Fidelity(+9.60%) and FCMB(+5.88%) all closed at limit up. On the flip side, consumer stocks closed weak – NB(-1.15%) dropped on profit taking; Guinness(-1.79%) fell for the third consecutive session on weak demand while Dangsugar(-4.60%) dropped on risk aversion.
Turnover stayed decent at N5.8bn ($16.2m) buoyed by trades in Zenith($2.82m), Guaranty($2.1m) and NB($1.5m). Today’s +1.22% ASI gain lifted ytd return to +15.85%, we expect the market to close slightly lower in coming sessions on profit taking.
