It was a positive close at the Nigerian equities market today (NSEASI +0.37%) as upticks in a few counters modestly masked the underlying bearish market mood. Telecomms giant MTNN(+1.55%) was a major mover, ticking higher on reduced offers amid relative pickup in demand and was supported by gains in Consumers including UACN (+9.89%), Unilever(+1.79%), Nascon (+4.00%) and NB(+0.99%). Others like Oando (+2.63%), Total(+2.99%) and Stanbic(+8.57%) rebounded from recent slump, albeit mostly on thin liquidity, while Guaranty(+1.11) advanced on the last day of its cum-div trading for H1 2019 results. These generally outweighed the dip in the likes of Dangcem(-0.31%), and top banks FBNH(-4.71%), UBA (-2.50%) and Zenith (-4.71%) which succumbed to more sale pressure post interim dividend mark-down;
Today’s session was quiet and market turnover was low at N1.8bn ($4.9m), boosted by a local cross trade in MTNN ($1.2m) and some activities in the banks; The Ytd loss on the index contracted to -12.42%, while Mtd return in August was -0.69%. We expect the market to maintain the sideways performance early in the coming month.
