The bears resurfaced in the Nigerian equities market as the ASI closed down by 37bps amidst improvement in trading activity. Weak sentiment towards Dangcem (-1.49%), Wapco (-1.06%),Total (-9.98%), Unilever (5.61%), Guaranty (-2.44%), PZ (-9.91%) and CCNN (-0.52%) dragged the broad benchmark indicator southward. Investors continued to bet on Access (+3.14%), while Zenithbank (+2.30%) showed resilience despite the sell pressure in witnessed in recent sessions. Other gainers included Guinness (+1.72%), NB (+0.11%), FBNH (+1.79%) and Fidelity (+3.83%).
Market turnover was impressive at N11.10bn ($30.5m), boosted by offshore interests crosses in NB ($7.9 mln) and Zenithbank ($10.8 mln). The ytd return dipped to -16.14%. We expect the market to maintain the same trading pattern in the next session.