The weakness in equities market persisted today and the NSE All Share index retreated by -0.16% to close the week lower at 24,336.12 points. Despite relative improvement in domestic bargain hunting by locals which led to gain in select banking counters like Zenith(+3.04%); FCMB(+2.27%); Fidelity (+1.21%) and Guaranty(+0.48%) on the day, weakness in other market names including NB(-5.68%); Nascon(-1.96%); UBA(-1.63%) and WAPCO(-0.96%) however outweighed the gainers.
Market turnover was also low at N1.5bn ($3.9m), with the only major block trades on the day being mixed interests related crosses in Guaranty($0.7m). The index declined by -1.99% w/w, while Ytd loss on the index stood at -9.34%. We expect the market to trade in a similar pattern in the coming session.