The equities market resumed the new month on a quiet note today, retreating by -0.45% to 30,928.29 as weak investor sentiments lingered. Energy majors Seplat (-9.07%) and Oando (-9.52%) were major drags, the latter particularly from recent developments around the recently announced recommendations from the SEC forensic audit of the company. Furthermore, weakness in Consumers UACN (-8.09%) and Glaxosmith (10%) alongside pullbacks in ETI(-9.87%); FBNH (-1.42%) and Guaranty (-0.95%) jointly offset upticks in the likes of Flourmill (+2.94%), Access (+2.46%), UBA (+1.60%) and Nestle(+0.69%) which all saw relative pick-up in demand.
Market turnover remained low at N2.8bn ($7.8m), dominated by offshore crosses in Guaranty ($2.4m) and NB ($0.4m). The Ytd loss on the index widened to -1.60%. We expect the market to trade sideways post the holidays.
