The equities market index buckled by -14bps in a session dominated by block trades in Zenith ($18.2m) which largely involved offshore interests. Top laggards included ETI (-9.69%) which declined to shed some of last week’s gains, closely followed by low investor appetite which drove CCNN (-10.00%) to its limit low levels whilst NB (-2.50%) retreated on profit taking activities. Also, the banks posted lacklustre performance led by Access (-4.35%) and Guaranty (-0.48%). On the flip side, Nestle (+3.62%) surged late in the day to trim some of the intra-day losses on the index, whilst Lafarge (+3.90%) continued to rally post deleverage announcement.
Market turnover rose to $28.15m, which included other crosses in Guaranty ($1.5m), Unilever ($1m) and Mobil ($0.63m). Ytd returns on the index closed lower at -5.16%. We expect the market to trade sideways in the coming session.
