Economy

Asian Equities Fall Amid Tumbling Oil Prices

Published

6 years ago

13/06/2019

By Investors Hub

Asian stocks ended mostly lower in cautious trading on Thursday, with tumbling oil prices, Hong Kong protests and uncertainty ahead of the upcoming G20 summit keeping investors on the sidelines.

Chinese shares ended roughly flat as Vice Premier Liu He called for more measures to support the economy and central bank data showed the country’s bank lending increased in May. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index inched up 1.36 points or 0.1 percent to 2,910.74.

Banks extended 1.18 trillion yuan in new loans in May compared to 1.02 trillion yuan in April. However, this was below the forecast of 1.3 trillion yuan.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged down 13.75 points or 0.1 percent to 27,294.71 as investors kept a close eye on violent protests over an extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial.

Japanese shares fell, dragged down by chipmakers after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 2.3 percent on concerns of a slowdown in China.

The Nikkei 225 Index ended down 97.72 points or 0.5 percent at 21,032 ahead of the June settlement of Japanese stock futures and options on Friday. The broader Topix closed 0.8 percent lower at 1,541.50.

Advantest plunged 5 percent and Tokyo Electron slumped 4.2 percent after technology stocks accounted for much of the slide on Wall Street overnight.

Japan Display plummeted almost 12 percent as the struggling smartphone screen maker announced its decision to cut staff, reduce pay and take more write-offs.

Lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 1.3 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group declined 1 percent as the prospects of a U.S. interest rate cut brightened.

Australian markets fluctuated before ending lower as tumbling oil prices hit energy stocks, offsetting gains in the financial sector.

Investors also reacted to the latest employment report flashing mixed signals. While employment gains exceeded expectations, the unemployment rate held steady at 5.2 percent, higher than the 5.1 percent forecast.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index ended marginally lower at 6,542.40, while the broader All Ordinaries Index dipped 0.2 percent to 6,619.10.

Woodside Petroleum, Oil Search, Origin Energy and Santos dropped 1-2 percent after oil prices slumped 4 percent overnight, pressured by an unexpected rise in U.S. crude inventories and concerns of a dimming outlook for global oil demand. Beach Energy shares plunged 5.7 percent.

Mining heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto dropped around half a percent as copper prices slipped following disappointing data from China. Smaller rival Fortescue Metals Group tumbled 3 percent.

Conglomerate Wesfarmers plummeted 5.2 percent as it forecast falling annual earnings at its Kmart discount retail chain for the first time in a decade.

AfterPay Touch lost 12 percent as the federal financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC ordered the appointment of an external auditor to probe the company’s compliance with money laundering and terrorism financing laws.

Meanwhile, banks ANZ, Commonwealth and Westpac ended modestly higher on expectations of one more rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia given subdued inflation and weak economic growth.

Export-driven healthcare stocks also gained ground as the Aussie dollar nosedived after the release of jobs data. CSL rallied 2.3 percent and Cochlear added 0.6 percent.

Seoul stocks closed lower for the second straight day as investors fretted about the outlook for the chip-making sector. The benchmark Kospi gave up 5.60 points or 0.3 percent to close at 2,103.15. Samsung Electronics declined 1.9 percent and SK Hynix tumbled 3.4 percent.

Economy

Naira Falls to N1,500/$1 at Official Market, Appreciates to N1,570/$1 at Black Market

Published

20 minutes ago

07/02/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

For the fourth consecutive trading session, the value of the Nigerian currency, the Naira, depreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday by 0.06 per cent or N89 Kobo to trade at N1,500.65/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,499.76/$1.

However, the Naira improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N8.19 to sell for N1,859.98/£1 compared with Wednesday’s closing price of N1,868.17/£1, but against the Euro, the local currency depreciated by N1.77 to settle at N1,555.18/€1, in contrast to midweek’s value of nN1,553.41/€1.

At the black market, the local currency gained N20 against the greenback during the session to quote at N1,570/$1 versus the N1,590/$1 it was traded a day earlier.

In the cryptocurrency market, it was majorly red on Thursday due to profit-taking as the US Securities and Exchange Commission took the first step toward allowing new crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking the price of assets like Litecoin and Solana, as well as new ways of redeeming funds from existing crypto ETFs.

Meanwhile, companies took another step toward launching Ripple (XRP) ETFs in a further sign of the new crypto-friendlier administration at the agency.

Data indicated that Cardano (ADA) went down by 5.1 per cent to trade at $0.7169, Solana (SOL) slumped by 4.8 per cent to finish at $192.63, and Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 4.5 per cent to sell at $0.2509.

In addition, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 4.3 per cent to close at $2,713.47, Ripple (XRP) weakened by 3.6 per cent to end at $2.36, Litecoin (LTC) retreated by 1.9 per cent to close at $103.95, and Bitcoin (BTC) dipped by 0.5 per cent to sell for $97,344.70.

However, the price of Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.4 per cent to trade at $579.91, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.

Economy

Buying Pressure Buoys NGX All-Share Index by 0.10%

Published

3 hours ago

07/02/2025

Dipo Olowookere

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessed continued buying interest from offshore and domestic investors on Thursday, strengthening the market further by 0.10 per cent at the close of transactions.

Data revealed that the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 105.26 points yesterday to 105,430.15 points from the preceding day’s 105,324.89 points, and the market capitalisation expanded by N65 billion to close at N65.287 trillion compared with the previous session’s N65.222 trillion.

Business Post observed that the market participants showed interest in equities across the key sectors of the exchange because of their prospects to yield better value later.

The insurance counter gained 0.63 per cent, the consumer goods index appreciated by 0.18 per cent, the energy index improved by 0.13 per cent, the banking space jumped by 0.09 per cent, and the industrial goods industry grew by 0.04 per cent.

Eterna chalked up 9.88 per cent to trade at N33.35, Cadbury Nigeria also gained 9.88 per cent to finish at N26.70, Fidson increased its value by 9.77 per cent to N19.10, UPDC rose by 9.77 per cent to N2.36, and Deap Capital soared by 9.38 per cent to N1.05.

On the flip side, Tripple G lost 9.72 per cent to end at N2.23, Golden Breweries receded by 8.91 per cent to N7.87, Veritas Kapital slumped by 7.81 per cent to N1.18, Caverton dipped by 5.53 per cent to N2.05, and Regency Alliance slipped by 4.05 per cent to 71 Kobo.

When the bourse closed for the session, there were 33 price advancers and 23 price decliners, indicating a positive market breadth index and strong investor sentiment.

Yesterday, investors bought and sold 537.2 million shares valued at N23.0 billion in 15,450 deals versus the 1.1 billion shares worth N28.8 billion traded in 15,080 deals on Wednesday, representing a rise in the number of deals by 2.45 per cent, and a decline in the trading volume and value by 49.19 per cent and 20.14 per cent, respectively.

Access Holdings led the activity log with 61.6 million stocks valued at N1.7 billion, Sterling Holdings exchanged 50.2 million equities for N296.2 million, Zenith Bank traded 40.5 million shares worth N2.0 billion, FBN Holdings sold 38.8 million equities valued at N1.3 billion, and UPDC transacted 23.6 million stocks worth N54.4 million.

Economy

Crude Oil Market Dips as Trump Reiterates US Plans to Boost Production

Published

3 hours ago

07/02/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The crude oil market continued its downward movement on Thursday after the US President, Mr Donald Trump, repeated a pledge to raise his country’s oil production.

Consequently, the price of Brent crude futures fell by 32 cents or 0.4 per cent to $74.29 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude declined by 42 cents or 0.6 per cent to $70.61 per barrel.

President Trump repeated a pledge to boost US production in a bid to lower oil prices and ease consumer inflation. The US is already the biggest crude producer in the world.

This move unnerved traders a day after the country reported a much bigger-than-anticipated jump in crude stockpiles.

Market analysts have questioned whether US oil producers will be willing to pump more barrels in the current market especially with Trump’s tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports looming.

US government data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed domestic crude stockpiles rose by 8.7 million barrels last week on Wednesday.

Prices also drew support from new US sanctions against individuals and entities for facilitating shipments of Iranian oil to China.

This is as President Trump reimposed a maximum pressure campaign against Iran, but also said he was open to a deal with the oil producing country.

The US said the tankers onboarded Iranian crude from storage in China as part of a scheme involving Iran’s military, which stands to profit from the sale of the oil.

The sanctions block access of the individuals and entities to any of their assets in the US and prohibit US foreign assistance.

China is also not sitting on its oars, it responded to the US blanket tariff of 10 per cent on all Chinese imports with several measured retaliatory tariffs, including a 15 per cent levy on LNG and 10 per cent on crude oil imports from the US.

US crude exports could slide to 3.6 million barrels per day this year, especially if the Trump Administration enacts the tariffs on Mexico and Canada – currently on pause until March 4.

Amid these developments, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Aramco has sharply raised prices for buyers in Asia.