The ASI traded within a narrow range for most part of today as fresh bargain hunting in some stocks tapered pre-existing risk off; albeit a last minute selling in index heavyweight – Dangcem pulled the bourse significantly lower ensuring a third consecutive loss for the market. Dangcem lost -2.22% on weak demand. Consumer good stocks traded mixed – major brewers such as NB(-2%) and Intbrew(-0.43%) dropped on weak demand while Unilever(+4.96%) and Glaxo(+1.32%) advanced on improved buying. Banking stocks were also polarized – Zenith(+2.56%) and UBA(+1.24%) bounced back on bargain hunting while Stanbic(-3.51%), Access(-0.79%) and tier IIs dropped on risk aversion.
Turnover remained decent at N4.5bn ($12.5m) with trades in Zenith($1.9m) and FBNH($1.9m) accounting for over a third of value. Today’ -0.77% loss cut ytd return to +13.85%, we expect the market to find support on bargain hunting in coming sessions.
