By Adedapo Adesanya

Four stocks weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.46 per cent on Friday, May 9, bringing down the market capitalisation by N9.02 billion to N1.935 trillion from N1.944 trillion quoted at the preceding session, as the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) dropped 15.42 points to settle at 3,304.74 points, in contrast to the 3,320.16 points recorded a day earlier.

Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) went down by N1.28 during the trading session to finish at N22.60 per share versus Thursday’s value of N23.88 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc lost N1.00 to close at N40.03 per unit compared with previous closing value of N41.03 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc depreciated by 11 Kobo to end at N1.81 per share versus the previous session’s N1.92 per share, and UBN Property Plc shrank by 4 Kobo to trade at N1.96 per unit, in contrast to the N2.00 per unit it was sold in the preceding day.

However, the price of Impresit Bakolori Plc went up by 11 Kobo yesterday to close at N1.27 per share versus the previous day’s price of N1.16 per share.

The volume of transactions went down on Friday by 33.1 per cent to 231.6 million units from the 346.3 million units recorded a day earlier, the value of trades decreased by 31.3 per cent to N606.4 million from N882.8  million, while the number of deals increased by 256.3 per cent to 57 deals from 16 deals.

At the close of trading activities, Impresit Bakolori Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 533.9 million units worth N520.9 million, followed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 265.8 million units valued at N469.5 million, and Okitipupa Plc with 153.6 million units sold for N4.9 billion.

Similarly, Okitipupa Plc was the most traded stock by value (year-to-date) with 153.6 million units worth N4.9 billion, trailed by FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 19.9 million units valued at N765.5 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 533.9 million units sold for N520.9 million.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira was relatively flat against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, May 9, though it marginally shed 0.2 per cent or 7 Kobo to settle at N1,609.64/$1, in contrast to the preceding day’s N1,609.57/$1.

Also, the Nigerian Naira traded flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official market during the session, remaining unchanged at N2,145.48/£1 and N1,818.42/€1, respectively.

In the same vein, the value of the domestic currency to the Dollar remained unchanged in the parallel market yesterday at N1,625/$1, according to data obtained by Business Post.

As for the cryptocurrency market, it remained positive as President Donald Trump announced a comprehensive trade deal with the UK and the cumulative inflows into the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) hit a record high above $40 billion.

According to market analysts, this has led to substantial liquidations of bearish short positions, or leveraged plays aimed at profiting from price losses. A position is liquidated or forced closed when the trader’s account balance falls below the required margin level, often due to adverse price movements. This leads the exchange to close the position to prevent further losses automatically.

Meanwhile, the US and China are said to be working on a trade deal but many are skeptical of a deal being reached this month.

Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 7.6 per cent to sell at $0.2229, Litecoin (LTC) improved its value by 5.5 per cent to quote at $103.51, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 4.6 per cent to $663.22, and Solana (SOL) recorded a 3.6 per cent growth to sell at $171.52.

Further, the price of Ripple (XRP) went up by 1.4 per cent $2.37, Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 0.8 per cent to sell for $2,366.49, and Cardano (ADA) gained 0.7 per cent to trade at $0.7952, while Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 0.3 per cent to $103,670.89, with the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) trading flat at $1.00 each.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Oil prices closed almost 2 per cent higher on Friday as a US trade deal with the United Kingdom turned investors optimistic ahead of talks between top officials from the US and China.

Brent crude futures rose by $1.07 or 1.7 per cent to settle at $63.91 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures advanced by $1.11 or about 1.9 per cent to finish at $61.02 per barrel.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese economic negotiator, Mr He Lifeng, in Switzerland to discuss containing the damaging trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he expected there to be substantive talks this weekend and predicted US tariffs were likely to come down.

He said China should open its market to the US, and that an 80 per cent tariff on Chinese goods “seems right”

This comes a day after he announced a deal lowering tariffs on British car and steel exports, among other agreements with the United Kingdom.

China’s foreign ministry has decried what it calls abusive and bullying economic tactics and said China remains firmly opposed to what it calls an unsustainable approach to trade by the US.

Since taking office in January, President Trump has hiked the tariffs paid by US importers for goods from China to 145 per cent, in addition to those he imposed on many Chinese goods during his first term and the duties levied by the Biden administration.

China hit back by imposing export curbs on some rare earth elements, vital for US manufacturers of weapons and electronic consumer goods, and raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 125 per cent. It also imposed extra levies on some products including soybeans and liquefied natural gas.

Analysts estimates that lowering tariffs on China to 80 per cent would bring the overall effective import tax rate from all the tariffs imposed by President Trump so far to 18 per cent from around 22 per cent now.

Meanwhile,  Chinese exports rose faster than expected in April while imports narrowed their decline, customs data showed on Friday, giving the world’s largest oil importer some relief ahead of the talks.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) oil output edged lower in April as production declines in Libya, Venezuela and Iraq outweighed a scheduled increase in output.