An improvement in market activities today, as the ASI rebounded by 19bps to close on a positive note. The positive performance was underpinned by gains in market heavyweight Nestle (+0.83%), coupled with other players like NB (+1.06%),Dangsugsar (+4.74%) and Flourmill (+2.19%) in the consumer goods space. Other gainers include Stanbic (+7.26%), FBNH (+ 3.67%), Unitybank (+7.94%) and FCMB (0.60%) in the banking space while Oando (+4.17%) closed positive at the end of the session. Though market breadth closed in the positive region, weakness in Zenithbank (-1.58%), UBA (-2.40%), ETI (-1.11%) drag down the banking index. Other notable laggards includes Cadbury (-6.01%), Wapco (-1.63%), and Dangflour (-1.12%) which slipped in the session.
Market turnover was very impressive at N5.9bn ($16.4m), boosted by blocks trades by offshore investors in Nestle($6.8m), NB ($4.4m), Guaranty ($1.1m) and MTNN($1.1m). The NSEASI shed -0.29% w/w, whilst ytd return narrowed to -11.87%. We expect the market to maintain the sideways trading pattern in the coming week.
