The equities market sustained its bullish start to the year, adding another +2.17% on the back of a mix of strong demand and reduced profit taking. Banking stocks were the best performers – FBNH(+10.21%), UBA(+5%), Zenith(+4.72%), Access(+4.19%) and Guaranty(+1.80%) all closed higher on strong demand; most tier II banks closed on bid. Investors’ sentiment was mixed across other sectors, cement major – Dangcem(+1.96%) jumped to a new record on thin liquidity while Wapco(-3.37%) dropped on risk aversion. Consumer good stocks also traded apart – Dangsugar(+4.98%) and Guinness(+4.60%) rose on speculative demand while PZ(-2.79%), Cadbury(-1.41%) and Nestle(-0.67%) slipped on profit taking.
Turnover was decent at N7.6bn ($21m) buoyed mainly by big activities in Access($5.2m), Guaranty($2.6m) and FBNH($2.3m). Today’s gain lifted ytd return to +15.20%, we expect the market to trend higher on a mix of speculative buying and improving macros.
