Economy

NSE: Analysts Expect Sell-Offs to Persist This Week

Published

6 years ago

10/06/2019

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has struggled to keep its head above water since MTN Nigeria Plc was hit with news of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raiding its head office in Lagos to investigate how it was listed on the local bourse.

When the telco joined the Nigerian stock exchange on May 16, 2019, the market was booming, but that news story on May 24, 2019, gradually brought an end to the honeymoon.

Since then, the market has been battling hard to escape from the tight grip of the bears without much success.

As the market begins trading this week, analysts have said investors should not expect any miracle to occur in the absence of any positive event to trigger the return of the bulls.

This week, precisely on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to address the nation, where he should roll out his plans for the next four years in office.

On May 29, 2019, when he was sworn-in for another four years in office, he did not give any speech as expected, but shifted it to this week, which is now to be celebrated as Democracy Day with a public holiday.

During trading last week, profit taking activities dominated the stock market and if nothing positive happens this week, this trend is expected to continue.

This view was echoed by analysts at Cowry Asset, who said, “In the new week, in the absence of major stimuli, we expect sustained bearish pressure on the local equities market as investor apathy pervades the bourse, resulting in general sell offs amid flight to safety.”

Sharing this same sentiment were those at United Capital Research, who said the bears will maintain dominance, though the bulls will attempt to bellow so as to attract attention of investors.

“Looking ahead, we expect market performance to remain lukewarm in the absence of a catalyst. However, we do not rule out the possibility of intermittent gains driven by bargain hunters,” they said.

For analysts at Cordros Research, “We reiterate our view that the blend of a compelling valuation story, together with positive macroeconomic picture leaves scope for market recovery in the medium term. However, we guide investors to tread the cautious trading path in the short term.”

Those at Afrinvest Research said, “Although we expect bargain hunting on stocks which have recently suffered losses next week, we believe sentiment would remain bearish in the absence of any major market catalyst.”

Analysts at Business Post are of the opinion that investors will want to trade cautiously this week and watch how things will turn out, especially with the issue between Oando and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“We do not expect heavy transactions this week as investors mainly look forward to President Buhari’s June 12 speech.

“They will also want to know what becomes of the Oando saga with SEC especially with the AGM already fixed for Tuesday.

“With all these in mind, we do not expect the market to close positive this week as investors will want to continue to take profit and watch events from a safer region.

“However, as we have always advised, this is the best time to mop up some sound stocks presently trading at low prices, especially those that could give holders interim dividends in a month’s time,” analysts at Business Post said.

Economy

Again, OPEC Cuts 2024, 2025 Oil Demand Forecasts

Published

6 hours ago

11/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

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

Published

11 hours ago

11/12/2024

Aduragbemi Omiyale

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%

Published

14 hours ago

11/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

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.