The equities market fell for the fourth consecutive session today as apathy in large cap consumer stocks outweighed value buying. Market movers – Nestle(-5%) and NB(-3.24%) were the biggest drag on the bourse, both dropped on weak demand and increased domestic selling respectively. The selling was however limited as Cadbury(+4.38%), Intbrew(+2.61%) and Flourmill(+2.48%) advanced on decent demand. Sentiment were mixed in banking stocks – Stanbic(-0.66%), Access(-0.40%) and tier II banks fell on risk aversion while UBA(+1.23%) ticked higher on favourable valuations; Zenith and Guaranty(+0.10%) closed flat. Volatile swings in Dangcem(+0.38%) impacted market direction intraday.
Turnover closed high at N7.4bn ($20.5m) buoyed mainly by a 1.6bln cross in Sterling bank ($10m) involving domestic investors. Today’s -0.49% drop cut ytd return to +13.29%, we expect the market to find support tomorrow.
