Decline in Dangcem (-1.10%) on tiny volumes and aggressive selling among the banks late in the session pulled back the equities market index, which closed -45bps lower. Guaranty (-2.12%) led the losing lenders alongside Access (-2.10%) and Zenith (-0.49%) to post a lacklustre sectoral performance. However, FBNH (0.67%) gained on renewed bargain hunting to provide some optimism together with UBN (+2.19%) and ETI (+1.00%). Market activity was subdued for extended periods during the day notwithstanding the few early session crosses in select counters. Dangflour (+5.00%) and Dangsugar (+1.82%) rose among the consumers to offset the stumbling in NB (-0.76%).
Turnover rose to N3.2bn ($9.0m) boosted by offshore crosses in NB ($0.9m), Zenith ($0.6m) and Guaranty ($1.1m) whilst UBA ($0.9m) involved mixed interests. Ytd loss on the index widened to -7.84%. We expect the market to find higher support level in the next session.
