Gains recorded among the consumers especially uptick in Nestle (+1.78%) and limit up cross in telco operator, Airtelafri (+9.97%) turned around a seemingly flattish trend on the broad indicator as investor apathy towards risky asset class persisted. Cement giant, Dangcem unsurprisingly succumbed to sell pressure to close in the negative territory in a fairly quiet session. Also, the banks were resilient on gains recorded in ETI (+9.38%), UBA (+1.59%) and Zenith (+0.31%).
Market turnover remained subdued at N2.1bn ($5.5m) and was dominated by block trades recorded in Guaranty, NB and Nestle which involved offshore participants. Ytd return on the index stood at -7.50%. We expect market activity level to improve as we approach the last two sessions of H1, 2020.
