Normalcy seems to be returning in the Nigerian equities space as trading activities improved in the domestic market. However, despite the positive sentiment by investors, the ASI (-0.71%) lost the steam gathered in the early hours of the session to close in the negative region. Today’s weakness was mainly due to unimpressive performance in market heavy weight Dangcem (-10.00%) coupled with losses booked by Nascon (-10.00%), CAP (-9.77%) and Intbrew (-9.57%) at the close of the session. Meanwhile, the banking sector closed on a positive note due to Access (+10.00%),UBN (+9.09%), FBNH (+8.11%), Zenithbank (+5.47%) and UBA (+4.95%). Other notable gainers were Wapco (+10.00%), NB (+7.33%) and MTNN (+2.04%) among others.
Market turnover was impressive at N8.06bn ($21.90mln), boosted by mixed interest trades in Zenithbank, Guaranty and Nestle. The NSEASI ytd return tapered further to -16.00%. We expect the market to witness the same sentiment in the next session.