As trading activities resumed for the new week today, the domestic equites market closed its penultimate trading session for the year on a positive note (NSEASI +0.74%), mostly driven by last minute gains in select large caps. The non-banks were the major movers as Seplat(+8.79%); NB(+3.11%); Nestle(+2.79%) and Dangcem (+1.07%) rose on late aggressive buying mainly by locals, whilst a few banks also similarly edged higher-FCMB(+2.02%); FBNH((+1.60%); UBA(+1.43%) and Zenith(+0.54%). Flourmill(+1.03%) and Oando(+1.38%) also ticked up, albeit on thin volumes. These outweighed declines in UBN(-9.56%); Access(-2.01%) and Fidelity(-1.90%).
Market turnover was impressive at N7.2bn ($19.7m), buoyed by mixed interest trades in MTNN ($4m); Dangcem($1.7m); offshore crosses in Guaranty($3.4m) and locals in Access($0.5m) and UBA($0.4m). The Ytd loss on the index narrowed to -15.34%. We expect the trend of late buying to continue tomorrow and further taper the negative full year performance as we close 2019.
