The Nigerian equities market began the month on a negative note, dipping by 42bps to settle at 97,359.76 points. Though market breadth closed slightly positive with 21 gainers against 18 losers, the day’s negative performance was due to weakness in MTNN (-5.00%), Dangsugar (-7.67%), Oando (-8.00%), Transcorp (-3.93%), UBA (-2.46%), FBNH (-2.15%), ETI (-2.27%), Guinness (-1.45%) and FCMB (-0.64%). On the positive side, Zenithbank (+5.74%), NB (+2.97%) Sterling (+3.90%), Ucap, which is ex-dividend and ex-scrip today (+6.94%), Jaiz (+4.76%), Fidelity (+0.94%) and Accesscorp (+0.27%) closed higher. Meanwhile, blue chips stocks; Dangcem, Geregu, Buacem and Buafoods still kicked off the month unchanged.
Market turnover was decent at N8.5 billion ($5.1 million), largely driven by trades in Fidelity. We expect the market to maintain its current levels with potential movements influenced by the release of more financial reports in the coming days.