Retreat in telecoms giant, MTNN (-0.37%) was largely responsible for the -36bps pull back on the equities market index today. Market sentiments remained weak due to cautious buying whilst selling pressure proceeded in a controlled manner. ETI (-2.00%) continued its decline from the last session alongside Zenith (-0.49%) among the banks which offset upticks observed in Guaranty (+0.33%), FBNH (0.72%) and UBA (+0.80%). Unilever (-7.59%) and Dangflour (-2.44%) succumbed to selling pressure to drag their sectoral index into the negative territory though marginal gains in Flourmills (+0.36%) masked the extent of the losses.
Market turnover fell further to N3.5bn ($9.6m) from the previous session and was dominated by offshore crosses in Zenith ($3.3m). Block trades in Guaranty ($1.2m) and Nestle ($0.4m) were also exchanged by offshore interests. Ytd loss on the index widened to -3.53%. We expect the market to firm up during the next trading session.
