Hunt for High Dividend Yields Stocks to Dominate Trading This Week

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices fell on Thursday members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) agreed to voluntary output cuts for the first quarter of next year, falling short of market expectations. As a result, Brent crude futures lost 27 cents or 0.3 per cent to close at $82.83 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures went down by $1.90 or 2.4 per cent to $75.96 a barrel. On a monthly basis, Brent fell by 5.2 per cent while WTI was down by 6.2 per cent. Saudi Arabia, Russia

By Aduragbemi Omiyale President Bola Tinubu has said the 2024 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday was designed to achieve macroeconomic stability, a better investment environment, greater access to social security, poverty reduction and enhanced human capital development. According to him, if these goals are achieved, the standard of living of Nigerians will improve and the citizens will enjoy the dividends of democracy. While presenting the 2024 Appropriation Bills to the parliament yesterday, the President said this was why he christened the budget proposal as the Budget of Renewed Hope. Mr Tinubu told the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) on Thursday asked Nigeria to produce about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024, lower than the 1.78 million barrels per day benchmark it proposed in the 2024 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday for passage. The output ceiling was around 1.8 million barrels per day before it was cut down to 1.5 million barrels yesterday at the group’s virtual meeting, a huge blow to Nigeria’s revenue target for the fiscal year. OPEC had tasked three consultancies – IHS, Rystad

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The food delivery service of popular e-commerce platform, Jumia, has been expanded to serve more customers in key cities of Nigeria. In a statement, Jumia Food said residents of Minna in Niger State, Benin City in Edo State, Kaduna in Kaduna State, Abeokuta in Ogun State, Kano in Kano State and Ilorin in Kwara State can now order for food items online and would be delivered to their doorstep. According to the CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Mr Massimiliano Spalazzi, the extension of the company’s food delivery service to these tier-2 cities on the Jumia Food map was

By Dipo Olowookere The treasury bills market was traded on Tuesday with mixed sentiments, with some buying interests witnessed earlier in the day, on the short end, due to the relatively buoyant level of system liquidity, analysts at Zedcrest Research said. Stating further, they said a change in sentiments was however witnessed later in the day, with market players taking profits and selling off slightly in anticipation of the PMA today and a possible OMO auction on Thursday. According to the research firm’s analysts, as a result of the above, yields were higher by 0.08 percent on the day. They

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The quality services offered by Stanbic IBTC Trustees have caught the attention of the organisers of the Africa Brands Congress Leadership Merit Awards as they have rewarded the company at their event. The subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings was named Africa’s Best World Class Trustee of the Year at the seventh edition of the programme, which had big names from across the sectors in attendance. The CEO of Stanbic IBTC Trustees, Mr Charles Omoera, while appreciating the organisers for the award, noted that it is a testament to the organisation’s continued commitment to providing world-class trustee services

By Adedapo Adesanya Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has disclosed that Nigeria lost about 22 million barrels of its crude oil production to oil theft and vandalism between January and June 2019. Governor Obaseki was quoted saying this in a statement issued by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum corporation (NNPC), in the nation’s capital, Abuja on Thursday. He said that if nothing was done to stop this, that the country was bound to have a major problem on its hands and that the figure could double by the end of the year. The Governor,

By Adedapo Adesanya  Oil rose for the fourth consecutive day this week on Friday and recorded what is the biggest weekly gain in more than a month due to support caused by falling U.S. crude inventories. The weekly performance rise was influenced by the surprise drop in the United States inventories, with crude stocks dropping by about 1.7 million barrels last week. On Friday, the Brent crude was set for a weekly gain of almost 4 percent or 34 cents to settle at $61.73 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by 46 cents to settle at

By Modupe Gbadeyanka In line with the financial inclusion strategy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its determination to capture the alarming number of unbanked market women, artisans and underserved population in the country, Heritage Bank Plc has deepened its retail banking structure by launching agent banking services at the coastal town of Badagry in Lagos State. This has brought the growing number of the lender’s agent banking base to 400 ‘Corner Shops.’ The new Badagry outlet, called Thy Grace, was unveiled over the weekend to provide a range of financial services to customers in the neighbourhood of

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira appreciated against the Dollar at the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Friday, May 19, amid headwinds, including forex scarcity and news of another devaluation of the local currency by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This was spurred by the weakening of the Nigerian Naira to N465/$1 on Wednesday in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the FX market, though it appreciated the next day to N463.00/$1. Yesterday, the domestic currency maintained stability against the greenback in the official market as its value remained at N463.00/$1 at the close

By Adeolu Seyi-Smith Job cuts, layoffs, wage cuts, and employee redundancy have continued to exacerbate as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to disrupt social life, the economy and every other human activity across countries. Hundreds of jobs have been wiped off like almost all the value chains including manufacturing, sales, and marketing, distribution, wholesale and retail, governance, aviation, tourism amongst others have been impacted negatively by COVID-19. The aviation industry, one of the worst-hit as a result of travel restrictions imposed by many countries, has recorded more job losses. For instance, WestJet has laid off 6,900 workers due to a