Economy
House of Representatives to Pass PIB in April
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
All things being equal, the much-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will be passed by the House of Representatives in April 2021.
Speaker of the lower chamber of the National Assembly, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, said this on Wednesday while declaring open a two-day public hearing on the bill organised by the ad-hoc committee.
He explained that the public hearing was put together to get the different views of stakeholders in the industry, urging the participants not to close their minds or ears to the views and the positions that may be advanced by various interest groups.
According to him, “We are in a world, an economic world, so there must be interest groups, they will be interest groups and we cannot deny that.”
He said after the public hearing, the legislative arm of government continue to engage stakeholders “to accommodate the diversity of interests and ensure all critical views form part of the deliberations that inform the final legislation.”
“We are not oblivious to the fact of many contending interests in this sector. These contentions do not need to result in conflict, especially when we know the objective of national prosperity benefits us all,” the leader of the green chamber of the parliament reminded the audience.
However, he assured that the House of Representatives will protect the interest of Nigeria in new PIB, which he said consumed a lot of energy and expertise to prepare.
“A lot of work has gone into the preparation of this Bill, but it’s not strait-jacketed. The idea of a public hearing is to have interests that may have not been accommodated prior to the introduction of the Bill to lend their voices and to understand perhaps the bigger environment where they are coming from,” he said.
According to him, “There have been various prior attempts to meet this obligation. Let us remember those attempts and be motivated by the knowledge that we can now correct past mistakes and fulfil the responsibility we owe these communities once and for all.”
Mr Gbajabiamila expressed confidence that the ad-hoc committee on PIB headed by the Chief Whip, Mr Mohammed Tahir Monguno, would do a thorough job because it was a national consensus that there should be a comprehensive reform of the oil and gas industry.
Business Post reports that the PIB has been long coming in the last 20 years, but due to contending and vested interests, nothing meaningful has been achieved.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited suffered its first loss this week with a 0.46 per cent decline on Friday, influenced by profit-taking.
The market was under selling pressure yesterday, with all the key sectors of the bourse closing in red when the gong was struck by 2:30 pm.
The commodity index was down by 1.94 per cent, the insurance sector depreciated by 0.22 per cent, the industrial goods space lost 0.18 per cent, the consumer goods counter went down by 0.05 per cent, the energy industry tumbled by 0.02 per cent, and the banking sector fell by 0.01 per cent.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) contracted by 498.56 points to 108,733.40 points from 109,231.96 points and the market capitalisation retreated by N314 billion to N68.339 trillion from N68.653 trillion.
The market participants traded 459.2 million equities valued at N11.2 billion in 15,723 deals on Friday versus the 554.1 million equities worth N14.4 billion traded 16,704 deals in the preceding session, implying a decrease in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 17.13 per cent, 22.22 per cent, and 5.87 per cent apiece.
Tantalizers traded 101.4 million shares for N237.3 million, GTCO exchanged 51.3 million equities worth N3.5 billion, Access Holdings transacted 45.2 million stocks valued at N975.3 million, Zenith Bank sold 21.8 million shares worth N1.1 billion, and Sterling Holdings transacted 15.5 million equities valued at N91.8 million.
The heaviest price loser was Transcorp Power with a decline of 9.98 per cent to settle at N328.50, Haldane McCall fell by 9.57 per cent to N4.25, Meyer lost 9.09 per cent to trade at N8.00, Regency Alliance dropped 6.78 per cent to finish at 55 Kobo, and Sunu Assurances crumbled by 6.73 per cent to N4.99.
On the flip side, ABC Transport chalked up 10.00 per cent to quote at N2.86, Sterling Holdings also expanded by 10.00 per cent to close at N6.05, Chellarams improved by 9.94 per cent to N10.40, Academy Press gained 9.92 per cent to finish at N4.32, and Red Star Express appreciated by 9.90 per cent to N5.55.
Business Post reports that a total of 34 stocks appreciated, while 32 stocks depreciated, indicating a positive market breadth index and bullish investor sentiment despite the loss recorded by Customs Street during the session.
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.
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