European Equities Extend Mixed Performance

By Adedapo Adesanya  Appreciation in the stock prices of Newrest Airline Services & Logistics (ASL) Plc, Food Concepts Plc, and UBN Property Plc saw the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange extend its gain by 0.47 per cent on Tuesday, December 5. Data showed that Newrest increased its price by N1.61 during the session to settle at N17.71 per unit compared with the previous day’s price of N16.10 per unit, Food Concepts Plc (owners of Chicken Republic) gained 15 Kobo to close the day at N1.65 per share versus N1.50 per share, and UBN Property Plc rose by 13 Kobo to

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited will alter how its crude cargoes are priced from January 2024. According to a new circular, the state oil company will start pricing its supplies against the monthly average of Dated Brent, the physical crude benchmark, raising worries that the nation’s barrels may become more risky. Prior to this latest move, Nigeria prices its crude cargoes based on Dated Brent’s average settlement in the five days after loading. NNPC plans to stick with the initial nominated loading dates for pricing purposes, according to the circular. Bloomberg reported that traders said

By Dipo Olowookere The online stock trading platform of Morgan Capital Securities Limited, iTrade, is now back online. The iTrade service went offline on Monday due to a technical glitch, which the company confirmed has been resolved, allowing its numerous clients to buy and sell shares and other securities without hassle. “Thank you for your patience and understanding. “This is to inform you that the trading platform (iTrade) is now fully up and running to enable you to trade seamlessly. “Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused as a result of this,” a statement from the company, which was sighted

By Adedapo Adesanya  The prices of the crude oil benchmarks, Brent and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell to a near five-month low on Tuesday on a stronger US Dollar and demand concerns. According to data obtained by Business Post, Brent futures went down by 83 cents or 1.1 per cent to $77.20 a barrel and WTI weakened by 72 cents or 1.0 per cent to $72.32 per barrel. The prices were the lowest for both crude benchmarks since July 6. This put the market down for a fourth day in a row on doubts over voluntary supply cuts announced by

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) recorded a 107.1 per cent growth in total interest income to $1.1 billion for the half-year of 2023 versus $540.8 million in the same period of 2022. This was contained in the consolidated financial statements of the bank and its subsidiaries for the half year ended 30 June 2023, which demonstrates a strong and resilient performance, which was ahead of expectations due to global headwinds. The growth in its total interest income came as a result of increased volume of interest-earning assets, particularly loans and advances and higher interest rates. Afreximbank Group’s

By Dipo Olowookere Despite the market breadth, which measures investor sentiment, closing positive on Monday due to the 17 price gainers and 15 price losers recorded, the stock market closed negative. The market depreciated during the opening trading session of the week by 0.21 per cent, reducing the year-to-date return to 30.63 per cent at the close of business. Business Post reports that the All-Share Index (ASI), which ended at the previous session at 35,137.99 points, decreased by 73.63 points yesterday to settle at 35,064.36 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation, which closed last Friday at 18.365 points, went down on

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The federal government of Nigeria has told residents of the country to erase the idea of reduction in the value added tax (VAT) paid on products and services. Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, while speaking at the daily briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja on Friday, said government will not consider the request at this critical time. He said the global health crisis has affected prices of crude oil at the international market, reducing the revenue generated from the sale of the product. Nigeria, which is Africa’s largest producer of crude oil,

By Damilola Faustino Over the past few years, awareness of startup accelerator programs like Y-Combinator and 500 Startups among others has skyrocketed. Typically, startup accelerators periodically select a batch of companies, usually in the same early stages of their lifecycle. In return for a small portion of equity, they offer advice, investor connections and mentorship. Programs can culminate in events much like debutante balls called a “demo day” where the startups have a chance to pitch to many investors at the same time. Despite the trend, many early-stage entrepreneurs remained misinformed about the benefits of going through accelerators. Here’s are key insights about what

**Banks May Lose Business to Fintech In recent times, there have been concerns raised about the status of midsized banks operating in Nigeria. Last month, Fitch Ratings disclosed that a number of Nigeria’s tier-2 banks (banks with total assets less than N2 trillion) will fall below the capital adequacy ratio of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should the Naira depreciate to N450 per Dollar. Last Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its Nigeria country report, noting that banks’ tier 1 capital ratio had declined to 10.8 percent in September 2017 from 16.3 percent in December 2016 and 17.1

By Nneka Okumazie If an individual hawks stuff around, who is responsible for that situation, and whose responsibility is it to lift that individual out of poverty? Factors responsible for poverty may include income, purchasing power, conditions of living, trade and monetary policies. There are some who are impoverished but aren’t hawking. What drives people to hawk and how much has Africa done to find solutions to hawking? Poverty in Africa is super complicated. The whole thing may be onerous to extricate, but fragments of it could find solutions if massive studies and efforts are thrown at it. There are

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude prices dropped on Thursday, November 5 as the highly contested presidential election in the United States remained with an unclear winner after two days. The global benchmark, Brent crude, dropped 46 cents or 1.22 per cent to sell at $40.77 per barrel while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell by 56 cents or 1.43 per cent to close at $38.59 per barrel. The election, which currently has Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, in the lead, is very crucial to the oil market. The former Vice President was in the lead in electoral votes over President Donald

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 0.57 per cent on Tuesday, no thanks to profit-takers, who strengthened the bears and caused the market to lose N188 billion. Sell-offs in industrial goods and insurance stocks left their respective sectors closing 1.90 per cent and 0.16 per cent lower. They overpowered the gains recorded by the banking (0.94) and consumer goods (0.07) sectors as the energy counter closed flat. At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 226.26 points to 39,267.11 points from 39,493.37 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N118 billion to