The downward trend persisted in the domestic equities space today and the index shed -0.25% on lingering weakness across various sectors. Although UACN(+10.00%) and Uac-prop(+10.00%) remained upbeat on the back of their proposed restructuring, while Cadbury(+6.45%), Okomuoil (+6.13%); FO(+1.35%) also ticked up on light volumes, on the flip side however were PZ(-5.08%) and Dangsugar(-3.40%) which fell on contracted demand. The banks were also weak as UBA(-2.38%); Access(-2.27%), FCMB(-1.29%) and FBNH(-1.10%) topped the losers, masking cross-induced gains in Guaranty (+1.34%). Other major laggards on the day included WAPCO(-3.01%) and MTNN(-0.32%).
Market turnover was lower at N2.4bn ($8.6m) as activities levels were subdued, though major block trades were recorded in Guaranty($2.3m) and Guinness ($1.0m) by offshore interests; as well as mixed interest related ones in MTNN($1.0m). The Ytd loss on the index widened to -13.29%. We expect the market to maintain the sideways performance in the coming session.
