Economy

Stock Market Gains N52bn as Buhari Floors Atiku at Tribunal

Published

5 years ago

12/09/2019

By Dipo Olowookere

The nation’s stock market closed 0.39 percent higher on Wednesday after suffering two consecutive losses this week as a result of profit taking activities by investors.

During yesterday’s session, the bulls chased out the bears from the market as investors kept an eye on proceedings at the election tribunal giving its ruling on the disputes from the February 2019 presidential election between President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his challenger, Mr Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

First feelers from the tribunal in Abuja gave clear indications that the President would retain his seat and this improved the level of confidence of investors, triggering buying pressure at the market.

Though the final judgement did not come before the close of transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), earlier rulings dismissing some of the appeals of Mr Atiku on the legitimacy of Mr Buhari and others brought fresh air to the stock market.

At the end of the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 105.95 points to settle at 27,153.53 basis points from 27,047.58 basis points in the last session, while the market capitalization appreciated by N51.6 billion to finish at N13.210 trillion against N13.158 trillion on Tuesday.

But Business Post observed that despite the market closing bullish yesterday, the volume, value and number of deals executed depreciated by 41.92 percent, 70.18 percent and 5.70 percent respectively.

A total of 211.5 million shares worth N1.5 billion were exchanged by investors in 4,365 deals in the mid-week session compared with the 364.2 million equities valued at N4.9 billion transacted in 4,629 deals in the previous trading session.

Courtville recorded the highest volume of sales yesterday, closing with a turnover of 35.2 million units of its shares traded at N7.7 million.

It was followed by Sterling Bank, which traded 34.7 million shares worth N78.1 million, and Access Bank, which transacted 30 million equities valued at N208.4 million.

Furthermore, Transcorp exchanged 15.9 million units of its stocks worth N16.1 million during the trading day, while UBA sold 12.5 million shares worth N77.5 million.

An analysis of the price movement chart showed that yesterday, Nestle Nigeria topped the gainers’ table after a price appreciation of N40 to close at N1120 per unit.

Seplat trailed with a price growth of N24 to finish at N450 per share, CCNN gained 25 kobo to settle at N16.50k per share, May & Baker improved its share value by 19 kobo to end at N2.09k per unit, while FCMB garnered 9 kobo to close at N1.64k each.

At the other side, Guinness Nigeria closed as the day’s heaviest price loser after depreciating by 30 kobo to trade at N37 per share, while Stanbic IBTC went down by 25 kobo to finish at N35.75k per share.

Flour Mills also declined by 25 kobo to close at N13.25k per share, Dangote Flour shed 15 kobo to settle at N22.10k per unit, while UAC Nigeria depleted by 15 kobo to trade at N6.05k per share.

For the sectoral performance, only the insurance sector closed negative on Wednesday after going down by 1.25 percent.

The energy sector was the day’s highest gainer with 2.82 percent growth, the consumer goods index appreciated by 1.60 percent, banking stocks rose by 0.35 percent, while industrial sector appreciated by 0.16 percent.

Economy

NASD OTC Bourse Declines Further by 0.16%

Published

2 hours ago

22/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.16 per cent decline on Tuesday, January 21, extending its loss this week to two.

This further depleted the market capitalisation of the alternative stock exchange by N1.65 billion at the close of transactions to N1.071 trillion from the N1.073 trillion it closed in the preceding session.

In the same vein, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) slid by 4.79 points to wrap the session at 3,100.33 points compared with 3,105.12 points recorded in the previous session.

The bourse ended with two price losers yesterday led by Geo Fluids Plc, which gave up 32 Kobo to trade at N4.38 per share versus Monday’s closing price of N4.70 per share and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, which depreciated by 15 Kobo to close at N39.50 per unit compared with the previous day’s N39.65 per unit.

On the second trading day of the week, the number of deal carried out slightly went up by 8.3 per cent to 13 deals from the 12 deals executed at the previous trading session.

Also, the value of transactions increased by 97.2 per cent to N4.5 million from the N2.5 million recorded a day earlier, while the volume of securities traded in the session declined by 71.6 per cent to 183,780 units from the 767,610 units recorded on Monday.

FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc remained the most traded equity by value (year-to-date) with 4.1 million units worth N162.9 million, followed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 9.1 million units valued at N44.0 million, and 11 Plc with 55,358 sold for N14.5 million.

Also, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc closed the day as the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 25.3 million units worth N5.9 million, trailed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 9.1 million units sold for N44.0 million, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 4.1 million units valued at N162.9 million.

Economy

Naira Crashes to N1,552/$1 at NAFEM, N1,670/$1 at Black Market

Published

2 hours ago

22/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Pressure further mounted on the Nigerian Naira in the different segments of the foreign exchange market on Tuesday, making its value to shrink against the United States Dollar at the close of business.

In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the domestic currency crashed against its American counterpart during the session by 0.18 per cent or N2.73 to settle at N1,552.78/$1, in contrast to Monday’s closing price of N1,550.05/1.

But against the Pound Sterling and the Euro, the local currency traded flat in the official market yesterday at N1,906.98/£1 and N1,613.48/€1, respectively.

As for the black market segment, the Naira weakened against the Dollar on Tuesday by N5 to sell for N1,670/$1 compared with the preceding day’s value of N1,665/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market heaved a sigh of relief during the session as President Donald Trump created a crypto task force dedicated to “developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.”

The task force will be led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, a long-time advocate for the crypto industry, and will work closely with the crypto industry to develop regulations. This is after Mr Gary Gensler, an opponent of crypto, officially stepped down as chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Mr Trump’s term started.

The task force will also work with Congress, providing “technical assistance” as it crafts crypto regulations.

Solana (SOL) recorded a 9.2 per cent growth to sell at $257.09, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 7.6 per cent to $0.36789, Ripple (XRP) added 4.0 per cent to finish at $3.18, and Bitcoin (BTC) increased by 3.7 per cent to $105,515.03.

Further, Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 2.8 per cent to close at $699.01, Cardano jumped by 2.1 per cent to trade at $0.9972, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 2.0 per cent to settle at $3,308.21, and Litecoin (LTC) went up by 1.5 per cent to end at $116.72, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.

Economy

Brent Falls Below $80 as US Signals Boost to Oil Output

Published

3 hours ago

22/01/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The price of the Brent crude oil grade went below the $80 mark on Tuesday after it shed 86 cents or 1.1 per cent to trade at $79.29 per barrel after the US President, Mr Donald Trump, signaled the possibility of his country boosting its oil production.

This move raised concerns of higher US output in a market widely expected to be oversupplied this year, with the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures falling by $1.99 or 2.6 per cent during the session to $75.89 per barrel.

On his first day in office, the US President signed an executive order to unleash America’s energy by easing the barriers to oil and gas extraction and production and revoking a series of climate orders by former President Joe Biden.

As pledged in the campaign, the executive order follows the declaration of a national energy emergency.

The declaration includes measures to expedite energy infrastructure delivery, and emergency approvals by agencies “to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands.”

This will likely confirm expectations that the oil market will be oversupplied this year after weak economic activity and energy transition efforts weighed heavily on demand in top-consuming nations the US and China.

President Trump also said he was considering imposing 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico from February 1, rather than on his first day in office as promised.

The delay helped ease concerns of an immediate tightening of the market among US refiners, many of which are geared to process the type of crude oil supplied by these countries.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reiterated on Tuesday its expectations for oil prices to decline both this year and next.

On its part, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projects robust demand growth in the world both this year and next.

In 2025, OPEC says demand is set to grow by 1.4 million barrels per day leaving its projection unchanged from the December report.

However, losses were also limited after the US president said his administration would “probably” stop buying oil from Venezuela. The U.S. is the second-biggest buyer of Venezuelan oil after China.

Also weighing on prices on Tuesday was the potential end to the shipping disruption in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday they will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented.