By Adedapo Adesanya

A recent survey by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says businesses have projected depreciation of the Naira in the first three months of 2025.

In its Business Expectation Survey Report for November 2024, the CBN said despite this expectation, there are several businesses which expressed optimism about the macroeconomic environment.

The report noted that firms’ outlook on the volume of business activities, financial conditions, access to credit, volume of total orders and average capacity utilisation, were pessimistic.

“The overall confidence index (CI) on the macroeconomy indicated that businesses were optimistic in November 2024.

“Businesses expect the Naira to depreciate in the current month, next month and next 3 months but appreciate in the next 6 months,” the report said.

“The optimism on business outlook in the current month is driven by the opinion of respondents from all the sectors.

“The Construction Sector expressed optimism on its operations in the review month.

“The outlook of respondents on the volume of business activities, the volume of total orders, financial conditions, and access to credit were negative in the review month. the volume of business activity respondents expressed optimism on the volume of business activity for the next month and subsequent periods under review,” it added.

The report also showed that businesses hope to employ more workers in the month of December 2024 with the agriculture sector having the highest prospect for expansion.

Meanwhile, the CBN in its latest Consumer Expectation Survey Report said that consumers were pessimistic about the macro economy in November.

According to the CBN report, households projected a rise in the cost of transportation, rent, car/vehicle, house purchase, and medical expenses this month.

The report showed that 61.1 per cent and 57.6 per cent of respondents perceived that prices of non-durable and durable household items, though high, will keep declining this month and next month respectively.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.46 per cent gain on Thursday, December 19, boosted by three stocks, which closed higher at the close of transactions.

Nipco Plc improved its closing price by N13.64 during the trading day to N150.10 per share compared with the preceding trading day’s N136.46 per share, Geo-Fluids Plc gained 33 Kobo to end the session at N3.88 per unit versus Wednesday’s closing value of N3.55 per unit, and UBN Property Plc appreciated by 16 Kobo to settle at N1.89 per share, in contrast to midweek’s closing price of N1.73 per share.

On the flip side, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc depreciated by 1 kobo to trade at 17 Kobo per unit compared with the preceding trading session’s 18 Kobo per unit.

At the close of business, the market capitalisation of the bourse increased by N4.73 billion to finish the trading day at N1.034 trillion compared with the midweek trading session’s N1.029 trillion.

In the same vein, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) went up by 13.77 points to wrap the session at 3,017.07 points compared with 3,003.30 points recorded in the previous session.

On Thursday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 603.9 per cent to 2.3 million units from the 59.624 units recorded a day earlier.

However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 48.9 per cent to N2.3 million from N4.6 million as the number of deals declined by 12 per cent to 22 deals from the 25 deals carried out on Wednesday.

Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.3 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.7 million units sold for N5.3 million.

Aradel Holdings Plc also remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units valued at N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.3 million units sold for N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.7 million units worth N5.3 billion.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira improved its value against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, December 19 by 0.18 per cent or N12.82 to sell at N1,541.38/$1 compared with the preceding trading day’s N1,554.20/$1.

Equally, the Nigerian Naira strengthened its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N17.84 to trade at N1,936.23/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,954.07/£1.

In the same vein, the local currency appreciated against the Euro at the same market segment by N77.46 to quote at N1,537.43/€1 versus midweek’s closing rate of N1,614.89/€1.

Also, the Naira gained N10 against the greenback during the trading session to settle at N1,650/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s closing value of N1,666/$1.

A look at the digital currency market showed that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) plunged below the $100,000 level to the $96,000 mark on Thursday, triggered by the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell disappointing investors with his comments on US interest rate cut expectations for next year.

US Federal Reserve’s projection of a slower pace of rate cuts for next year and Mr Powell’s hawkish tone on rising inflation expectations led to a broad-market selloff across assets like crypto.

Business Post reports that BTC lost 4.9 per cent yesterday to quote at $96,330.89.

Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 13.7 per cent to sell at $0.313, Cardano (ADA) slid by 10.5 per cent to trade at $0.8796, Solana (SOL) slid by 9.7 per cent to finish at $189.95, and Ethereum (ETH) recorded a loss of 9.2 per cent to finish at $3,342.61.

Further, Litecoin (LTC) shrank by 8.1 per cent to settle at $99.51, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 5.1 per cent to close at $666.49, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 4.5 per cent fall to end the trading day at $2.25, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) lost 0.02 per cent to quote at $0.9994, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.