A late rally in index heavyweight, Dangcem (+2.70%) pulled the equities market into the positive territory by +47bps despite the initial market lull from declines in consumers – Intbrew (-4.23%), Nestle (-0.01%); and the banks – Guaranty (-1.81%), UBA (-3.13%), Zenith (-0.62%), Access (-0.66%). Other gainers included Stanbic (+2.04%) and FBNH (+1.32%) while Lafarge (-2.34%) continued with its lacklustre performance alongside late decline into the close in Seplat (-2.46%) on tiny volumes.
Market turnover inched up to N2.3bn ($6.3m) boosted by offshore crosses Stanbic ($0.9m) whilst FBNH ($0.74m) involved mixed interests. Ytd loss on the index contracted to -18.54%. We expect the market to trade sideways in the next session.