Trading activities in the Nigerian equities market for the year commenced on a positive note as the ASI appreciated by +0.73% to settle at 43,026.23. Gains recorded in cement manufacturer Buacement (+7.31%) as well as upward movement in Stanbic (+5.56%), Flourmill (+2.29%), ETI (+2.30%), Zenithbank (+0.60%) and Wpaco (+0.21%) largely accounted for the broad index performance. Nevertheless, market breadth closed in the negative region as Ardova (-10.00%), Vitafoam (-10.00%), Uacn (-5.26%), NB (-4.00%), Dangsugar (-2.59%), NGXGROUP (-2.01%), UBN (-1.69%), FBNH (-0.88%) and Access (-0.54%) all declined.
Turnover was meagre to N1.52b ($3.68m) though boosted by trades in Zenithbank, NB and GTCO . The YTD return on the NGX index stood at +0.73%. We expect the market to maintain a similarly trading pattern in the coming session.
