The bearish trend on the Nigerian equities market was sustained in today’s session as the ASI contracted by 15bps to settle at 29,772.72 and YTD return nosedived to -5.27%. Market bellwethers MTNN (-0.75%), DANGCEM (-0.05%) and SEPLAT (-3.19%) among others pressured the equities tracker to close the day in the red zone. Meanwhile FO(+10.00%) spiked following an Off market cross of 970.1m shares valued at N64b($ 177.78m). This could be the anticipated divestment by a major shareholder of company. Other gainers include DANGSUGAR (+9.90%),ETI (+7.78%) and GUARANTY (+0.65%). Market activity was consequently impressive with turnover appreciating by 469% to N67.89bln ($ 211.11m).
Other block trades included DANGCEM (c.2.4 million units), MTNN (c. 1.5 million units) and FBNH (c. 20 million). We anticipate the tepid movement in the index to persist in the next trading session.
