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Economy

How to Trade Gold in Nigeria

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Trade Gold

Gold has traditionally been seen as a way to store your money. It’s not affected directly by either fiscal policy or monetary policy of governments and central banks like currencies.

It will always be worth something – unlike a currency that can end up being almost worthless as a result of rapid inflation, for instance. That’s why whether it’s in the uptrend or in the downtrend, the gold market offers high liquidity and excellent profit-making opportunities due to its unique position within the world’s economic and political systems.

Some traders often fail to take full advantage of the changes in gold prices because they haven’t learned its unique characteristics or the hidden pitfalls that can steal their profits. Let’s take a look at the advantages of trading gold, factors that can influence its prices and how to trade gold profitably.

What Drives Gold Prices

Like we’ve mentioned before, gold prices can be driven by a limited number of catalysts. Market sentiment, volume and trend intensity are generally driven by:

  • Inflation and deflation
  • Greed and fear
  • Supply and demand

Market participants can face increased risk when they trade gold in reaction to one of these factors, when in fact, it’s another one driving price action. Imagine there’s a major selloff in the financial market, and gold starts rallying.

Traders assume that fear is moving the precious metal and expect that the emotional crowd will carry the price higher.

However, inflation may have actually triggered the stock’s decline, attracting a more technical crowd to the market that will sell aggressively.

Combinations of these forces are always in play in world markets, establishing long-term themes that track equally long uptrends and downtrends.

Gold attracts numerous crowds with diverse and often opposing interests. The so-called gold bugs (individuals who buy gold as protection against an anticipated collapse in the value of currency, stocks, etc.) stand at the top of the crowd, allocating an outsized portion of family assets to gold equities. They are long-term market players who are rarely discouraged by recurring downtrends, so they eventually shake out less ideological traders.

Gold bugs add massive liquidity, providing a continuous supply of buying interest at lower prices. They also serve the contrary purpose of providing efficient entry for short-sellers, especially in emotional markets when one of the three above-mentioned factors swings the market in favour of strong buying pressure.

To trade gold profitably, you need to know the crowd sentiment. Cayman Sentiment Index is a unique indicator offered by the AMarkets online broker absolutely for free to all of its clients that will allow you to spot potential market extremes, which can be considered as a strong signal for a correction or a trend reversal.

Examine long-term charts

Make sure to examine the gold chart carefully. Start with a long-term history that goes back at least 100 years. In addition to spotting trends that lasted for decades, you’ll see that the yellow metal has also trended lower for long periods of time, robbing profits from gold bugs. From a strategic standpoint, such an analysis is useful because it helps you identify price levels that need to be watched if and when gold decides to test them again.

Summing up

To trade the gold market profitably, make sure to study how the three polarities we mentioned in this article impact gold buying and selling decisions. Don’t forget to devote some time and analyze the long and short-term gold charts to see which key price levels may come into play.

Keep in mind that traders widely use gold as a “safe haven” asset. When market participants are worried about risk trends, they tend to flock to gold.

On the other hand, as risk appetite grows, expect a selloff in haven assets. As you can see, gold is an important hedge tool against inflation and a valuable asset that can bring you good profits.

If you consider trading gold, make sure you choose a reputable global broker with favourable trading conditions. AMarkets offers some of the lowest spreads in the industry to trade gold.

Just recently, it slashed its spreads on gold by 30% on ECN accounts, allowing its clients to make the most out of their gold trading.

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan. Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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Economy

Dangote Refinery’s Domestic Petrol Supply Jumps 64.4% in December

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Dangote refinery petrol

By Adedapo Adesanya

The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.

This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.

The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.

The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.

The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.

The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.

In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.

Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.

It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.

On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day

Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.

Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).

The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.

Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.

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Economy

SEC Hikes Minimum Capital for Operators to Boost Market Resilience, Others

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Investments and Securities Act 2025

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.

The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.

The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.

According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”

Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.

For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.

The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.

There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.

“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.

“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.

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Economy

Austin Laz CEO Austin Lazarus Offloads 52.24 million Shares Worth N227.8m

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austin laz and company plc

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.

The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.

The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.

Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.

The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.

According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.

In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.

It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.

In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.

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