By Adedapo Adesanya

The oil market was down by about 2 per cent on Thursday on expectations of a US-Iran nuclear deal that could result in sanctions being eased and more barrels released onto the global market.

This brought down the price of Brent by $1.56 or 2.36 per cent to $64.53 a barrel and weakened the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude by $1.53 or 2.42 per cent to $61.62 per barrel.

The President of the United States, Mr Donald Trump, said yesterday that it was getting close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, which the oil-producing country said it “sort of” agreed to the terms.

Mr Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military, and nuclear adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mr Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Middle East nation was ready to sign a nuclear deal with the US under certain conditions, including the US lifting the sanctions on Iran.

These comments came hours after the US Treasury slapped additional sanctions on Iran, designating nearly two dozen firms operating in multiple jurisdictions in virtually every aspect of Iran’s illicit international oil trade.

The sanctions target Iranian efforts to domestically manufacture components for ballistic missiles, the US Treasury Department said, following Tuesday’s sanctions on some 20 companies in a network that it said has long sent Iranian oil to China.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin ignored meeting face-to-face with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mr Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Turkey on Thursday, instead sending a second-tier delegation to planned peace talks, dealing a blow to prospects for a peace breakthrough.

Due to Mr Putin’s absence, Ukraine’s president said his defence minister would head up Ukraine’s team.

If the talks hold, it will be the first direct talks between the sides since March 2022.

This is slim as Mr Trump said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Putin.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) lifted its oil demand growth forecast in 2025 to 740,000 barrels per day, up 20,000 barrels per day from the previous report, citing higher economic growth forecasts and lower oil prices supporting consumption.

The IEA said economic headwinds and record sales of electric vehicles are expected to reduce demand growth to 650,000 barrels per day for the remainder of the year, from growth of nearly 1 million barrels per day in the first quarter.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers, (OPEC+), has been increasing supply, although OPEC on Wednesday trimmed its forecast for growth in oil supply from the U.S. and other producers outside the wider OPEC+ group this year.

Weighing on prices, data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday showed crude stockpiles rose by 3.5 million barrels to 441.8 million barrels last week.

By Dipo Olowookere

The positive momentum seen at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited in the past few sessions was sustained on Thursday as the platform closed higher by 0.37 per cent.

This was buoyed by renewed appetite for Nigerian stocks, especially by offshore investors, who feel that the equities are currently undervalued.

Honeywell Flour ended the trading session as the best-performing stock, gaining 10.00 per cent to settle at N16.50, just as Nestle Nigeria chalked up 10.00 per cent to close at N1331.00.

Further, Beta Glass appreciated by 9.98 per cent to quote at N213.70, NPF Microfinance Bank gained 9.81 per cent to finish at N2.35, and Neimeth advanced by 9.77 per cent to N3.37.

The worst-performing stock for the day was Multiverse, which tumbled by 9.64 per cent to trade at N8.90, Coronation Insurance went down by 4.74 per cent to N2.01, Lasaco Assurance depreciated by 4.53 per cent to N2.32, May and Baker lost 3.82 per cent to sell for N12.60, and AIICO Insurance slipped by 3.61 per cent to N1.60.

At the close of transactions, 36 shares ended on the gainers’ table and 23 shares finished on the losers’ log, representing a positive market breadth index and bullish investor sentiment.

The consumer goods industry rose by 1.16 per cent during the session, the banking space increased by 0.20 per cent, the industrial goods index jumped by 0.18 per cent, and the commodity counter grew by 0.15 per cent, while the energy sector lost 0.18 per cent, with the insurance sector closing flat.

When the closing gong was beaten by 2:30 pm, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 408.31 points to 109,467.64 points from 109,059.33 points and the market capitalisation moved up by N257 billion to N68.801 trillion from N68.544 trillion.

Investors bought and sold 716.1 million equities worth N13.7 billion in 14,559 deals yesterday compared with the 531.2 million equities valued at N19.8 billion transacted in 14,870 deals at midweek, indicating a rise in the trading volume by 34.78 per cent, and a shortfall in the trading value and number of deals by 30.81 per cent and 2.09 per cent apiece.

FCMB topped the activity chart with the sale of 273.0 million stocks for N2.6 billion, Fidelity Bank transacted 43.5 million shares valued at N896.7 million, Caverton exchanged 35.1 million equities worth N144.7 million, AIICO Insurance traded 33.9 million shares for N54.3 million, and FTN Cocoa sold 26.4 million equities worth N63.3 million.

By Adedapo Adesanya

• Strengthens case for MPC to cut or pause interest rates next week

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased to 23.71 per cent in April 2025, reflecting a 0.52 percentage point decline from the 24.23 per cent recorded in March.

This was disclosed in the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) Report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

The report also showed a decline in the food inflation index by 0.53 per cent to 21.26 percent in April from 21.79 per cent in March.

The decrease was attributed to the reduction in the prices of staple food items, including maize (corn) flour, wheat grain, dried okro, yam flour, soya beans, rice, bambara beans, and brown beans.

According to the NBS: “The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 119.52 in April 2025, reflecting a 2.18-point increase from the preceding month.”

“On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.99% lower than the rate recorded in April 2024 (33.69 per cent). This indicates a significant decrease compared to the same month in the preceding year, though with a different base year of November 2009 = 100,” it added.

The report further noted that the food inflation rate on a year-on-year basis stood at 21.26 per cent in April 2025, marking a 19.27 per cent reduction from the 40.53 per cent achieved in April 2024. The NBS attributed this sharp decline to a change in the base year used for calculations.

On a month-on-month basis, food inflation was recorded at 2.06 per cent in April 2025, a slight drop of 0.12 per cent from 2.18 per cent in March 2025.

“The decrease can be attributed to the reduction in the average prices of key food items like Maize Flour, Wheat Grain, Okro Dried, Yam Flour, Soya Beans, Rice, Bambara Beans, and Brown Beans,” the report added.

The development increases the chances of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to cut or pause interest rate at its next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on May 20.

The MPC of the apex bank has only four months of data to guide its decision after the NBS overhauled the consumer price index for the first time in 16 years in January and changed the base year to 2024.

Business Post reports that at the last meeting, the CBN paused the key interest rate at 27.50 per cent.