Market Sheds 0.14% as Investors Offload Financial Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited depreciated by 0.49 per cent on Thursday, driven by selling pressure on banking equities, especially those in the tier-1 category. The likes of GTCO, FBN Holdings, Access Holdings witnessed sell-offs during the trading session, contributing to the weak investor sentiment observed at the Nigerian stock market. According to data obtained by Business Post, the NGX ended with 29 price losers and 24 price gainers, indicating a negative market breadth index. FBN Holdings ended as the heaviest price decliner after it shed 9.86 per cent to settle at N26.50, Secure Electronic Technology fell

By Adedapo Adesanya Crude oil prices rose more than 2 per cent on Friday after data from the world’s largest oil producer, the United States, supported expectations of demand growth. Brent crude futures settled at $75.84 a barrel after chalking up $1.79 or 2.4 per cent, as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures traded at $71.23 after gaining $1.89 or 2.7 per cent. Despite the gain at the final session of the week, both benchmarks fell for a seventh straight week, their longest streak of weekly declines in half a decade, on lingering oversupply concerns. For the week,

By Dipo Olowookere A digital treasure trove called Mali Magic aimed to preserve and showcase the historic and contemporary art and culture of Mali has been launched by Google. With the launch of Mali Magic, people from all over the world can view an array of manuscripts, music, art and heritage sites including over 40 000+ digitised endangered manuscripts many of which were smuggled to safety during political unrest in the country. It also contains more than 50 exhibits which include the first online, interactive tours of some of Mali’s most significant historic sites, at-risk mausoleums and mosques including the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Traders in the treasury bills market in Nigeria are anticipating the instrument worth N453.30 billion maturing this week. The bills will mature via both the primary and secondary markets and are expected to bring about moderation in the interbank lending rates amid expected ease in financial system liquidity. According to analysts at Cowry Asset, last week, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) auctioned treasury bills worth N307.71 billion via the secondary market with the outflows partly offset by inflows worth N152.93 billion in matured treasury bills. Consequently, NIBOR for 1 month, 3 months and 6 months tenor buckets

By Dipo Olowookere A total of 22 media innovators from Nigeria and other countries from Africa, the Middle East and Turkey have been picked to receive $2.1 million in funding through the second Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge. Three media organisations in Nigeria were chosen for the challenge, with Naij.com Media Limited, publishers of the online news platform, Legit.ng, selected for ReCo, a solution that improves Internet user experience by making content recommendations based on user preferences on their home page and within articles. The second media firm from Nigeria was Richmond Hill Media Limited, owners of Ripples Nigeria,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opened the week on Monday on a positive note when it close northward by 0.12 percent. The market breadth also finished positive today with 16 equities appreciating in price in contrast to 12 stocks that crashed at the close of activities. The All-Share Index (ASI) improved by 30.24 points to close at 25,485.17 points, while the market capitalisation advanced by N11.2 billion to finish at N8.818 trillion with the YTD return ending at -5.17 percent. The top gainers today was led by 7up after appreciating by N3.99k to close at N80 per

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that international investors were losing confidence in the nation’s oil and gas industry as the volatile fiscal environment is inhibiting the growth of the Nigerian petroleum industry, especially the upstream sector. The NNPC upstream operations involve joint partnerships with major oil companies. In a statement released by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the company, it was stated that the Group Managing Director of the agency, Mr Mele Kyari, informed members of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) that urgent steps must be

By Adedapo Adesanya The United Kingdom government has reiterated promises to boost investment in sustainable industries in Nigeria and other African countries, with such plans to support the Nigerian e-mobility platform and electric vehicle assembler, MAX Nigeria. This was the point of call as the UK Foreign Secretary, Mr James Cleverly, visited the company, which has gained support from the UK government-funded Manufacturing Africa programme. MAX has raised $31 million to ramp up the assembly of electric two- and three-wheelers, and with the visit, the e-mobility firm is now gearing up for a third capital raise to fund its expansion

By Mpaka Numbere The challenges of insecurity in Nigeria and Plateau State in particular have continued to occupy and engage citizens not only because of the complex nature of the conflicts, but also of the competing interests that tend to make representations on the causes, dynamics and actors of the conflict intricate. To be sure, these contending interests again seem to accelerate the race to the bottom in finding solution to these crises which unfortunately is also against intervention initiatives to proffering elucidations on the methods to be adopted in the resolution of these crises. The search for a lasting

By Modupe Gbedeyanka Leading provider of solid state LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions, Quanergy Systems, today announced the acquisition of OTUS People Tracker software from Raytheon BBN Technologies. The software complements Quanergy’s existing software portfolio and, when used with Quanergy’s LiDAR sensors, creates an integrated hardware and software solution for advanced people detection and tracking applications within the security and autonomous driving markets. OTUS uses sophisticated human perception algorithms to identify and track people for safety and security in crowded environments at ranges exceeding 100 meters when used with Quanergy LiDAR sensors. The system features segmentation techniques identifying humans,