The Nigerian equities market resumed the week on a negative note as sell pressure overwhelmed bargain-hunters in today’s session. The broad benchmark indicator was dragged down by 1.27% largely due to weakness in the banking space, which has been under policy pressure in recent time; laggards in this sector included UBN (-9.21%), FBNH (-7.83%), UBA (-7.43%), Access (-6.38%), Zenithbank (-3.78%), Guaranty (-3.76%) and FCMB (-9.23%). Other losers in the session included Glaxosmith (-10.00%), Buacement (-1.51%) Cadbury (-9.89%), NB (-2.99%), Nahco (-1.76%) and Jberger (-6.67%). In compliance with the resolution passed by Forte Oil Plc’s shareholders at the Extraordinary General Meeting which held on 17 December 2019, the company announced its change of name to Ardova Plc, while the trading symbol was also changed from FO to Ardova.
Meanwhile, market turnover improved to N7.3bn ($19.9 mln), buoyed by offshore interest in Guaranty ($11.2mln), coupled with fragmented trades in Zenithbank, Nestle and FBNH. The NSEASI ytd return tapered to +0.74%. We expect the market to get some support in the next session.
