The equities market continued its lacklustre run of decline as the index closed -22bps lower. Bargain hunting remained aloof on the back of sustained selling in the banks whereas, there was relative calm among the consumers and industrial goods. UBA (-2.61%) and Access (-2.52%) succumbed to selloffs on their earnings released alongside their peers – Zenith (-0.90%), Sterlnbank (-7.60%) and ETI (-1.10%). Losses in Dangflour (-0.97%) and Lafarge (0.39%) had marginal pull-back effect on their respective sub-indices.
Market turnover rose to N3.3bn ($9.2m), boosted by offshore crosses in Zenith ($1.3m), Guaranty ($0.7m), Nestle ($0.8m) though FBNH ($0.5m) involved mixed interests. Ytd loss on the index widened to -0.92% whilst wtd return stood at -2.45%. We expect the market to trade sideways next week.
