The equities market took a breather today as investors booked profits from recent rallies ending a run of six consecutive gains. Most stocks initially traded at multi-highs intraday before a sell-off ensued towards the close. As is tradition, the banks were the worst hit – tier Is such as Zenith(-5.30%), Guaranty(-1.23%), Access(-1.07%) and UBA(-0.66%) all dropped amid profit taking. Consumer stocks such as Flourmill(-5%), Intbrew(-3.23%) NB(-1.07%) also slipped. Bucking the trend was Stanbic(+5%), Wapco(+4.21%) and Nestle(+2.73%).
Turnover remained impressive at N14bn ($39m) buoyed by profit taking in top banks – Guaranty($9.4m), Zenith($4.3m) and FBNH($4.3m). Despite today’s -0.33% dip, weekly return still closed strong at a 3year high of +10.2%. Ytd return fell to +12.17%, we expect the market to drop lower next week on profit taking.
