NASD Gains 0.03% on Renewed Interest in Friesland Shares

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 The Nigerian Naira weakened to a new low on the American Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, December 8, amid speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again devalued the local currency. In the previous trading session, there were reports that the exchange rate for clearing cargoes has been raised to N952/$1, sparking rumours that domestic currency would hit N1,000/$1 in the spot market. On the last trading session of the week, the Naira lost N255.98 or 30.4 per cent of its value on the greenback to trade at N1,099.05/$1

By Adedapo Adesanya The Naira recovered from the previous day’s loss after closing stronger against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Thursday, December 7, by 11.4 per cent or N108.15 to trade at N843.07/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N951.22/$1. This occurred as the value of foreign exchange (FX) transactions slightly increased during the session by $1.67 million or 39.5 per cent to $137.25 million from the $135.58 million achieved in the preceding trading session. Similarly, in the official market, the Nigerian Naira strengthened against the British Pound Sterling on Thursday by

By Dipo Olowookere Minister of Defence, Mr Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali, has reacted to reports by some online publications (Business Post excluded), claiming that he has sent letters to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin and Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, directing them to hand over their offices on or before Friday, December 16, 2016. The Minister, in a statement issued on Monday, December 12, 2016, by his spokesman, Colonel Tukur Gusau, emphasised that there was no such communication between his office and the service chiefs directing any one of them to hand

By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel The House of Representatives has faulted the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop the sale of foreign exchange (forex) to the Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators. According to the lawmakers, the new policy by the central bank, which took effect about two months ago, has caused further and unprecedented devaluation of the Naira, especially at the parallel market. The action, the members of the lower chamber of the National Assembly posited, has also negatively affected the source of livelihood of the operators of BDCs and Nigerians in general. Recall that on July 27,

By Adedapo Adesanya The Senate has agreed to investigate the more than N20 trillion in unremitted stamp duty revenue collected by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from banks and other financial institutions on behalf of the federal government from 2013 to 2016. This decision was made at Tuesday’s plenary, with the Senate Committee on Finance given the mandate to probe what happened to the funds, where were not put into government’s coffers. It was stated that the funds were collected through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) within the period under review. At the session yesterday, Senator Ayo

By Dipo Olowookere The positive momentum recorded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday when the market rebounded by 0.17 percent was sustained on Wednesday. At the close transactions yesterday, the equity market was pointing north by 0.86 percent with the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns expanding to 6.81 percent. This was buoyed by gains recorded by blue-chip equities in the Industrial goods and Consumer goods sectors. They were enough to offset the losses recorded by stocks in the Banking and Insurance industries. When market activities were halted yesterday afternoon, a total of 27 counters appreciated in price

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Analysts at Financial Derivatives Company Ltd have projected a further moderation in the inflation rate for the month of October. The last inflation rate released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the month of September 2017 put the rate at 15.98 percent. According to the calendar of the NBS, the October inflation rate is expected to be released tomorrow, Wednesday, November 15, 2017. But analysts at Financial Derivatives Company Ltd say the rate will again decline to 15.89 percent with the food inflation also easing. “We are forecasting that Nigeria’s year-on-year headline inflation will slide

By Cowry Asset In the just concluded week, the local currency appreciated week-on-week in most foreign exchange market segments. The Naira depreciated against the US Dollar by at the Investors & Exporters Forex Window (I&E FXW) by 0.06 percent to N360.25/USD while it weakened by 0.05 percent to N329.42/USD at the interbank market (NIFEX). This was despite injections by the CBN worth $195 million into the foreign exchange market of which $100 million was allocated to Wholesale (SMIS), $50 million was allocated to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and $45 million was sold for invisibles. The Naira however closed steady

By Modupe Gbadeyanka ​As part of efforts to proactively monitor market manipulation, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has announced going live on the new market surveillance platform powered by SMARTS, Nasdaq’s flagship surveillance solution. The platform will enable the stock market regulator monitor spoofing and layering, detect and deter manipulative tendencies, gather intelligence, carry out traders’ monitoring and analysis, conduct multi-asset and cross-market surveillance, and execute risk-based supervision of flagged participants. The Nasdaq SMARTS Surveillance solutions have been the industry benchmark for real-time, cross-market, cross-asset surveillance for 22+ years. Used by over 3,500 compliance professionals around the world, SMARTS currently

A year ago, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) made the bold move to activate its business continuity plan which saw the transition to remote trading in support of the fight against COVID-19. Exactly 365 days later, the exchange continues to maintain seamless trading and business operations recording no downtime and delivering exceptional value to stakeholders. The exchange has remained an attractive platform for issuers and investors to meet their investment objectives thanks to its steady and consistent capacity building in technology, automation and digitisation of its operations over the years. It is, therefore, no surprise that the exchange has recorded