Another day of decline on the All Share index (-0.56%) which closed at a 25-month low. This undesired record was led by partial reversal from previous session’s gains in banking major – Guaranty (-1.02%) and sustained selling in index heavyweight, Dangcem (-0.29%). Other big banks followed same pattern as Access (-3.13%), Stanbic (-1.27%), Zenith (-0.80%) and UBA (-1.75%) could not hold firm at yesterday’s closing levels. Unilever faltered on mid-day crosses as well as decline in Nestle (-0.40%) and Guinness (-3.16%) on weak buying to pull consumers index lower by -77bps. Also, JBerger (-9.77%) crumbled under selling pressure towards its limit low levels on tiny volumes.
Turnover improved to N3.9bn ($10.8m) and was boosted by barrage of offshore crosses in Guaranty ($5.03m) whilst Stanbic ($0.5m) shares were also exchanged by foreign interests in a block deal. Ytd loss on the index widened to -10.78%. We expect the market to maintain the same trading pattern in the absence of incentives.