Trading activities on the Nigerian equities market closed in the negative region as the NGX ASI retreated by -0.25% to settle at 53,637.14 points. Profit taking on NB (-9.96%), UCAP (-3.35%), WAPCO (- 2.35%), UBA (-1.90%), Zenithbank (-1.68%), GTCO (-1.53%), Stanbic (-1.47%) and Flourmil (-0.98%) largely accounted for the southward movement on the ASI. Other notable laggards were Nahco (-4.12%), Wemabank (- 3.73%), Aiico (-1.32%), Afriprud (-0.83%), UBA (-0.62%), Fidelitybk (- 0.27%) and Zenithbank (-0.21%). Notwithstanding, ETI (+5.04%), Guinness (+3.90%), Fidelitybk (+3.03%), Unilever (+2.01%), Ardova (+0.66%) FBNH (+0.42%) and NGXGROUP (+0.21%) finished stronger.
Turnover was N.371b ($8.95m) supported by block trades in MTNN as well as fragmented trades in Zenithbank, and Stanbic . The YTD return on the NGX index tapered to +25.57%. We expect the same trading pattern in the coming session .