FGN Bond Prices Close Bullish Across Maturities Amid Liquidity Boost

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed that Nigeria saw a 65.7 per cent or N76.77 billion increase in earnings from the solid minerals sector in 2021 to N193.59 billion from the N116.82 billion achieved in 2020. This upward trajectory has been on for the past five years, according to a report from the agency. The Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, however, lamented that this is still abysmal considering the potential of the sector to the Nigerian economy. He said this while presenting the solid minerals sector report in Abuja, noting that

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil prices fell by 1 per cent on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, as widely expected. Brent futures fell 81 cents or 0.9 per cent to settle at $93.53 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell by 92 cents or 1.0 per cent to trade at $90.28 per barrel. Wednesday’s decision means the benchmark short-term interest rate will remain at 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent, a 22-year high. This is only the second time since March 2022 that the US central bank meetings have concluded without

By Dipo Olowookere Ellah Lakes Plc can now go ahead with its plans to raise fresh capital through a rights issue to shareholders, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared. In 2022, shareholders of the company authorised the board to source about N2.90 billion. The board later filed an application to the SEC to carry out the transaction. In an update on Wednesday, Ellah Lakes informed the investing community that the apex regulatory agency for the country’s capital market had approved its request. The firm, which operates in the agricultural sector, intends to get N2.90 billion from shareholders from

By Dipo Olowookere The regulator of the stock market in Nigeria, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Regulation Limited (RegCo), has announced its intention to change rules guiding free-float for companies listed on the NGX Limited. In a notice obtained by Business Post, the organisation further said it wants to amend the cross-border listing rules and develop guidelines for migrating listed securities from one board of the bourse to another. At the moment, the exchange does not have rules regulating the migration of listed securities from one board to another, prompting the regulator to “address this lacuna and to foster NGX’s commitment

By Adedapo Adesanya Goldman Sachs has revised and reduced its forecast for Brent crude oil, the benchmark which Nigeria prices its crude to $75 a barrel for the third quarter, $5 lower than its previous estimate, as a surge in Delta variant COVID-19 cases takes a toll on demand. Earlier this week, oil prices fell $5 a barrel in response to fears over the hit to demand from rising Delta coronavirus infections and an agreement from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) to boost output. “Our oil balances are slightly tighter in 2H21 than previously, with

By Dipo Olowookere A new study has disclosed that housing microfinance can and should become a mainstream offering for financial institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa as they respond to growing housing needs in the region, particularly from poor people. The study from Habitat for Humanity released on Thursday entitled ‘Building the Business Case for Housing Microfinance in Sub-Saharan Africa’ argued that housing microfinance, small non-mortgage backed loans for short terms, can become a mainstream offering in the market to address growing housing needs in the region, incremental building patterns, and the land tenure realities of low-income households. The research builds on

By Investors Hub The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a roughly flat opening on Tuesday following the rally seen in the previous session. Uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets may keep some traders on the sidelines after yesterday?s advance lifted the Dow and the Nasdaq to nearly six-month closing highs. Traders may be looking for more concrete developments out of ongoing U.S.-China trade talks before making more significant moves. Additionally, a report from the Commerce Department may partly offset the positive sentiment generated by the upbeat manufacturing data released on Monday. The report showed a steep

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira started the new trading week on a wrong note as it depreciated against the Dollar by 87 kobo or 0.21 per cent at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market. At the market window on Monday, the local currency closed at N411.67/$1 in contrast to N410.80/$1 it traded last Friday. It was observed that a slight disruption in FX liquidity did not help matters yesterday as forex traders were unable to sufficiently meet the requests of their customers, which put pressure on the domestic currency. Details of the transactions at

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil traded higher on Monday as investors waited for any moves against Russian energy exports that might come out of a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations in Germany. The seven wealthy nations – the US, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan – on Monday vowed to stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes”, promising to tighten the squeeze on Russia’s finances with new sanctions that include a proposal to cap the price of Russian oil. Imposing the oil price cap aims to hit Russian President Vladimir

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) has disclosed that Nigeria is currently suffering from poor response to oil spill and lack of capacity of government’s agencies to tackle environmental issues. The NNRC said this in a presentation by its Program Coordinator, Ms Tengi George-Ikoli, at a webinar titled Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Amendment Bill: Reducing environmental degradation through improved oil spill response. According to Ms George-Ikoli, NOSDRA, the agency set up to address some of the grave consequences of oil exploitation, which is also mandated to respond to oil spills, was currently hampered

By Adedapo Adesanya It was a welcome party investors at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange were not expecting on Monday from the bears. This was because the unlisted securities market opened the new week in the bearish territory, losing 0.44 per cent at the close of business. This loss was inflicted on the NASD investors by two bellwethers, Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc and Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Group Plc. The duo ensured that the market capitalisation of the bourse was reduced by N2.87 billion to N652.58 billion from N655.45 billion and weakened the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by

By Dipo Olowookere Those who trade Nigerian stocks gained N22 billion on Monday despite the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited witnessing low trades. The market appreciated by 0.10 per cent on the first trading session of the new week on the back of bargain hunting by investors, who cherry-picked equities that could yield gains in the coming days, weeks and months. As a result of the buying interest, 21 shares ended on the gainers’ chart while 11 shares finished on the losers’ table, indicating a positive market breadth and investor sentiment. Neimeth recorded the biggest price appreciation with 9.82 per cent