The equities market came to a negative close (NSEASI -0.24%) as late sell-down on tiny volumes in oil & gas major, Seplat (-9.83%) depressed the otherwise flattish session. Early crosses in Guaranty and Stanbic had kicked off the day, thereafter, the market was in a lull mood for an extended period till much later. The banks – Stanbic (-0.98%), UBA (-1.33%), FBNH (-0.69%) and Zenith (-0.22%) alongside Nestle (-0.34%) declined to push the market further into the negative territory notwithstanding gains in UBN (+8.33%) and Intbrew (+1.87%).
Market turnover remained flat at N3.6bn ($10.1m) boosted by offshore crosses in Nestle ($2.8m), Guaranty ($0.9m) and NB ($1.02m). Ytd loss on the index widened to -20.12%. We expect the market to trade sideways in the next session.
