The Nigerian equities market closed today’s session on a positive note as the ASI climbed by +0.11% despite intra-day weakness from sustained sale pressure in the banks. Biggest price jump on the day was from AIRTELAFRI (+10.00%), though on thin volume in its first trading day buoying the broad equity index to the green zone on the day. Banking names Guaranty(-2.95%), ETI (-8.65%) remained negative while poor performance on Dangcem (-1.30%) contributed to the intra-day losses. Other major laggards included Glaxosmith (-9.78%), Dangsugar (-8.26%), Conoil (-6.93%) and PZ (-5.80%). Meanwhile Cadbury(+4.37%) on account of tiny block trade, Dangflour (+1.75%), and NB (+0.83%) ticked up.
Turnover improved to N3.22bn ($9.11m) with block trades on Zenithbank ($1.2m) Guaranty($0.5m) and MTNN($1.1m) involving mixed interests as the major blocks on the day. Ytd loss on the index tapered to -6.72%. We expect the market to maintain the same trading pattern in the next session.
