The equities market posted its second-worst trading day of the year (-2.68%) as worries around top bank earnings sparked more panic selling, dragging the index to a 2-week low. Eager to take monies off the table, domestic investors raised selling over the session leaving the few buyers mainly foreign with the easy task of bottom picking. Financial stocks were amongst the biggest losers, despite strong earnings Guaranty lost -4.68% as investors scaled back buying, Access(-4.98%), Stanbic(-4.93%) and Zenith(-3.27%) all dropped amid a glut in supply.
Index heavyweight – Dangcem was however the biggest drag on the bourse, slipping -4.89% on weak demand. Investors sentiment were mixed in consumer names; the sell-off in NB(-2.63%) was curtailed as foreign buyers held N185 levels, while Nestle(+0.99%) ticked higher on strong foreign demand.
Turnover closed decent at N5bn ($13.8m) buoyed by block trades of 5mln NB , 15mln Guaranty and 640K Nestle between foreign investors, trades in the (3) names accounted for 68% of activities. Ytd gain dropped to +34.34%, we expect the market to find support in coming session on value buying.