A late cross induced surge in Dangcem (+2.15%), buying into the close in Guaranty (+0.29%) and market-on-open crosses in Seplat (+6.81%) propelled the index into the positive territory by +0.32%. Hitherto, market mood appeared negative as the selling pressure increased particularly in the banks on news related to US Fed rate hike. Access (-6.33%) led the losers on the back of a less convincing conference call held yesterday on its proposed merger and subsequent rights issue though Diamond (+9.60) continued its recent momentum of maximising gains. ETI (-5.00%), UBA (-3.23%) and Zenith (-0.22%) declined alongside consumer majors – NB (-0.64%) and Nestle (-0.68%).
Market turnover remained flat at N4.1bn ($11.2bn) boosted by block crosses in Zenith ($1.4m) involving mixed interests whilst offshore counterparts exchanged Access ($1.2m) and Stanbic ($0.9m). Ytd loss on the index shrunk to -19.46%. We expect the market to trade sideways in the next session.
