Economy
Market Rises 0.39% on Huge Appetite for Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank Shares
By Dipo Olowookere
The huge appetite for the shares of Zenith Bank and Sterling Bank extended the rally at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday by 0.39 per cent.
Investors are mopping up the banks’ stocks, especially Sterling Bank, because of its decision to operate as a holding company, which is expected to bring more value to the company as a result of the additional revenue to be generated by the expanded business.
During trading yesterday, Zenith Bank transacted 90.9 million units of its stocks worth N1.6 billion, while Sterling Bank exchanged 82.3 million equities valued at N98.8 million.
UBA traded 56.7 million shares for N344.4 million, FBN Holdings sold 34.6 million stocks worth N183.0 million, while FCMB exchanged 24.5 million stocks for N51.3 million.
Business Post reports that at the close of business, a total of 413.1 million shares worth N4.5 million were traded by investors in 4,681 deals as against the 336.8 million equities worth N4.0 billion transacted the previous day in 4,602 deals, indicating 22.64 per cent, 12.38 per cent and 1.72 per cent growth in the trading volume, value and number of deals respectively.
The market breadth ended positive yesterday with 14 price gainers and 10 price losers and Seplat emerged as the highest gainer with N2 added to its share price to sell at N400 per unit.
BUA Cement gained N1.35 to trade at N41.75 per unit, MTN Nigeria appreciated by N1 to quote at N127.50 per share, Dangote Sugar grew by 20 kobo to N12.50 per unit, while Zenith Bank gained 20 kobo to settle at N17.50 per share.
On the losers’ chart, Lafarge Africa topped the table with a drawback of N1 to close at N15 per share and was trailed by eTranzact, which lost 26 kobo to settle at N2.35 per unit.
FBN Holdings depreciated by 15 kobo to close at N5.20 per share, Ardova went down by 10 kobo to sell for N11 per share, while Learn Africa dropped 7 kobo to trade at N1.07 per unit.
Again, all the five major sub-sectors of the market closed positive on Tuesday, with the industrial goods leading after appreciating by 0.83 per cent.
The banking sector gained 0.40 per cent, the energy counter grew 0.26 per cent, the insurance space appreciated by 0.24 per cent, while the consumer goods space rose by 0.07 per cent.
It was observed by Business Post that the market capitalisation of the NSE is preparing to reach N14 trillion. Yesterday, it gained N55 billion to close at N13.908 trillion versus the previous N13.853 trillion.
For the All-Share Index (ASI), which reached the 26,000 region recently, it gained 104.12 points on Tuesday to finish at 26,611.96 points as against 26,507.84 points it closed on Monday.
Economy
Again, OPEC Cuts 2024, 2025 Oil Demand Forecasts
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
Economy
Aradel Holdings Acquires Equity Stake in Chappal Energies
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
Economy
Afriland Properties Lifts NASD OTC Securities Exchange by 0.04%
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
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