The equities market overcame an intraday pullback to close flat (-0.08%) today as a last minute domestic buying in cement major – Dangcem helped reverse early profit taking. Investors’ sentiment was mixed across the board, FBNH(+7.19%), Guaranty(+1.88%), Access(+1.63%) and tier II banks all advanced on strong demand while UBA(-2.69%), Stanbic(-2.58%) and Zenith(-0.62%) declined on profit taking. Consumer stocks also traded mixed – Nestle(+1.35%) and Guinness(+0.46%) rose on foreign buying while NB(-2.77%) and Unilever(-4.30%) dropped on strong domestic selling.
Turnover closed high at N10bn ($29.6m), buoyed by huge activities in FBNH($5.84m) and Guaranty($4.4m). Ytd return dropped to +17.27%, we expect the market to tick lower tomorrow on profit taking in large caps.
