Nigerian Stocks Lose N37b as YtD Gain Drops to 1.79%

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said it would ensure that the next national minimum wage to be negotiated in 2024 reflects the prevailing cost of living. The union also lamented that following the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government, life has become extremely unbearable for workers. Addressing participants at the opening of the 19th edition of the NLC’s Harmattan School in Abuja, President of the NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, said it had become necessary for governments at all levels to recognise that life and living conditions were exceedingly difficult, especially for working people in

By Bliss Okperan Nigeria recorded an improvement in its trade surplus in the third quarter of 2023, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which was analysed by Business Post. The agency disclosed that in the period under review, the total value of exports stood at N10.347 trillion, while imports stood at N8.458 trillion, leaving the total value of trades at N18.802 trillion, 60.78 per cent higher than the N6.435 trillion achieved in the second quarter of 2023. Analysis showed that between July and September 2023, the country, which prides itself as the biggest economy in

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has expressed its readiness to partner with the Lekki Deep Seaport by promoting the seamless movement of cargo and the efficiency of the nation’s ports. The NSC Executive Secretary, Mr Pius Akutah, gave the assurance when the Managing Director, Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited (LPLEL) – promoters of Lekki Deep Seaport, Mr Du Ruogang, led the port’s management on a courtesy visit to the NSC in Lagos. Mr Akutah, who commended the Lekki Deep Seaport management for the visit, said the council would partner with the port in areas that would boost

By Adedapo Adesanya Oil slumped by more than 2 per cent on Friday as traders showed scepticism about the depth of supply cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) as well as concerns about sluggish global manufacturing activity. Brent crude went down by $1.98 or 2.45 per cent to close at $78.88 a barrel as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped $1.89 or 2.49 per cent to sell for $74.07 a barrel. For the week, Brent posted a decline of about 2.1 per cent, while WTI lost more than 1.9 per cent.

By Adedapo Adesanya The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has decided to lift the suspension that was imposed on the All India Football Federation (AIFF) due to undue third-party influence. This means that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 scheduled to take place on October 11-30, 2022 will be held in India. The decision was taken after FIFA received confirmation that the mandate of the committee of administrators that was set up to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee had been terminated and that the AIFF administration had regained full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs.

By Adedapo Adesanya The global credit rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has affirmed the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) credit rating at “AAA”, with a stable outlook. Fitch said the triple-A rating was driven by the extraordinary support of the bank’s shareholders. Fitch said it views the bank’s risk-management policies as conservative and assesses them as excellent, in line with AAA-rated peers. “Concentration risk is low, with the bank’s five largest exposures accounting for 32 per cent of total banking portfolio at end-2020,” Fitch said. The Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer of the African Development Bank, Mr Bajabulile “Swazi”

By Adedapo Adesanya  Southern African nation, Namibia, has become the first nation on the continent to export red meat to the United States, following almost 20 years of negotiations, testing, and discussions. The United States is the world’s biggest red meat consumer as Americans consume on average 120 kg of meat per person, and as the demand for the commodity increases globally, this proved a good opportunity for the nation. The state-owned meat company, Meatco, sent a shipment of 25 tonnes of beef to Philadelphia in the US on Wednesday, and with this, it paves way for Namibia to export

By Adedapo Adesanya  The 7 kobo decline recorded by the share price of Trustbond Mortgage Bank Plc led the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange into the dungeon for another successive trading session. Stocks of the mortgage bank, which closed on Tuesday at 70 kobo per unit, depreciated by 11.11 percent on Wednesday to settle at 63 kobo each. This contributed to the 0.06 percent loss printed by the unlisted securities market and led to the 0.43 points depreciation suffered by the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI), which closed at 683.06 points against 683.49 points recorded at the previous session. In

By Dipo Olowookere Last week was not too good for the Nigerian currency at the Investors & Exporters Forex Window as the Naira recorded a marginal loss of 0.03 percent. This was amidst the weekly injections by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of $210 million into the foreign exchange market. A breakdown of the intervention showed that $100 million was allocated to Wholesale (SMIS), $55 million allocated to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and $55 million given to the invisibles segment of the market. According to analysts at Cowry Asset, the Naira/Dollar exchange rate, however, remained unchanged at the interbank

By Dipo Olowookere The nation’s stock exchange rebounded on Tuesday by 0.02 per cent on the back of fresh bargain hunting by investors, especially in banking and energy equities. Strong indications that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will retain key monetary rates yesterday also inspired the renewed confidence investors had in the market. At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited rose by 11.24 points to 45,939.51 points from 45,928.27 points, while the market capitalisation increased by N6 billion to N24.755 trillion from N24.749 trillion. On the price movement chart, there were

By Dipo Olowookere Manufacturer and marketer of home and personal care products, Unilever Nigeria Plc, did not have it good in the first half of 2019, results of the company’s performance revealed. This resulted in the 38.6 percent decline in the post-tax profit of the firm, which stood at N3.5 billion in H1 2019 compared with N5.7 billion in H1 2018. Likewise, the profit before tax suffered a reduction of 38.16 percent, staying at N4.7 billion as at June 30, 2019 in contrast to N7.6 billion as at June 30, 2018. From the financial statements released by the company at

By Adedapo Adesanya The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has said the Forcados Oil Terminal would resume export operations by the end of the month when ongoing essential repairs would have been completed. This was disclosed by the company’s Media Relations Manager, Mrs Abimbola Essien-Nelson, in a statement. “In addition to the repairs, we are working to remove and clamp theft points on the onshore pipelines to ensure full crude oil receipt at the terminal,” she stated. According to Mrs Essien-Nelson, the active illegal connections to SPDC joint venture’s production lines and facilities in the western Niger