The Nigerian equities market Index backtracked marginally by 9bps to settle at 25,582.23 pts at the close of today’s session. Profit taking in tier 1 banks: Guaranty (-2.45%), UBA (-2.33%), FBNH (-1.00%), Zenithbank (-0.57%) as well as weakness in some consumer goods, Dangsugar (-3.60%) and Guinness (-0.35%) contributed the most to the downward performance. Nevertheless, Access (+5.35%), Stanbic (+1.32%), ETI (+1.20%), CAP (+0.59%) and Wapco (+0.42%) finished in the green territory.
Turnover was N1.99bn ($5.16m), buoyed by fragmented trades in Zenithbank, UBA and Access. The NSEASI ytd return dipped to -4.69%. We expect the market to trade with similar sentiments in the next session.