Bearish sentiments continued to dominate the domestic equities market today (NSEASI -0.90%) as investor apathy persisted. The market weakness was broad based, with negative performance recorded across all the market sub-sectors. The sale pressure was more noticeable among the banks (NSEBNK -4.58%) and key decliners included Zenith(-5.73%); Guaranty(-5.26%) ; ETI (3.03%) and FCMB(-6.88%). Consumer goods stocks were also very weak and the major laggards were led by Unilever(-9.98%), Glaxosmith(-9.80%); Flourmill (-5.36%) and Cadbury (-8.78%). On the flip side were mainly low-mid cap stocks including NAHCO (+5.53%) and Neimeth(+9.40%). There were almost seven losers recorded for every one that gained.
Market turnover was also low at N1.8bn ($4.8m), boosted by block trades by offshore interests in AirtelAfri ($0.6m) and Guaranty($0.5m) and by locals in UBA ($0.3m). The Ytd return on the index stood at -9.19%. We expect the market to trade in a similar pattern in the coming session.
