The equities market suprassed the 45,000pts mark today as improved bets in tier I banks offset profit taking in overbought small caps. Foreign investors upped demand in Guaranty(+4.99%) pushing prices to a fresh all time high of N54.71. Zenith(+2.17%) bounced back from yesterday’s slump on fresh domestic buying while UBA(+1.90%) also ticked higher mainly on domestic demand. Stanbic(+2.20%) and Unilever(+4.44%) were other notable gainers today. On the downside, investors booked profits from recent rallies in Dangsugar(-3.61%) and tier II banks such as Fidelity(-2.26%) and FCMB(-3.32%). Despite today’s gain, market breadth remained negative for the second consecutive day with losers outpacing gainers 4:3.
Turnover stayed decent at N8.62bn ($23.8m) buoyed mainly by trades in top banks – Guaranty($3.3m), Zenith($3m) and FBNH($2.5m). Today’s +0.54% gain lifted ytd return to +17.91%, we expect the market to trade sideways next week on a mix of profit taking and speculative buying.
