Author: Julius Alagbe
Litecoin Slides as Cryptocurrencies Face Sell Pressures Litecoin (LTCUSD) fell 0.6% over 24 hours, underperforming the broader crypto market amid persistent risk-off sentiment. Top cryptocurrencies are bleeding, and this bearish condition has dragged Price data showed that LTC declined to $78.10 as trading volume climbed, leaving the coin’s market value at $6 billion at the press time. Data obtained from CoinMarketCap.com showed Litecoin decline amidst a 40% spike in trading volume to $382 million on Monday amidst a recent privacy-tech upgrade. Over 90% of Litecoin nodes now validate MWEB – MimbleWimble Extension Blocks – enabling optional transaction privacy. Combined with…
Euro Trades Strong after Rates Decision Diverge The euro (EURUSD) hovered around $1.18 with a small gain against the US dollar in 2025, reflecting diverging policy paths between the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve. Investors continue to accumulate the single currency as markets await the U.S. and European interest rates policy for 2026, which could stay over the short term early in 2026. The euro’s positive outlook against the pound was reaffirmed by the European Central Bank (ECB), which left the deposit rate unchanged at 2.00%, having lowered it from 4.0% to 2.0% between June 2024 and June…
Otedola Sells Geregu Power after 1,041.50% Gain in 3 Years Femi Otedola has exited its position as the largest shareholder of Geregu Power Plc following a block deal closed with MA’AM Energy Limited for an undisclosed amount. The stock market value of Geregu Power Plc’s 2.5 billion outstanding shares in the Nigerian Exchange remained flattish at N2.853 trillion at a unit price of N1,141.50. Trading activities on the power-generating linked stock have always been tight versus the post-listing transaction that lifted the company’s market value tenfold. The sale of a 77% shareholding based on the stock market price ought to…
MTN Nigeria Delivers 152% Gain on Investment Year-To-Date Despite a rough start to the year, investors who staked bets and stuck to MTN Nigeria Plc closed the year stronger with better-than-expected capital appreciation and a surprise interim dividend payment. According to data obtained from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), the telecom company share price fell by N27.7 or 5.21% to N504 following a last-minute sell-off last week. The last week selloff reduced the company’s year-to-date return to 152%, having opened the year at N200 per share. Share price fell as investors traded 3.239 million units of MTN Nigeria valued at N1.628…
Zenith Bank Delivers 39% Return Amid Regional Expansion Move Zenith Bank Plc boosted shareholders’ value with a 39% gain year to date. The tier-1 bank, however, underperformed the Nigerian Exchange with 49% year-to-date ahead of the holiday. However, the below NGX index performance was compensated for due to an interim dividend that Zenith Bank paid to shareholders amidst earnings-dilutive regulatory development. It suffices to say that no tier-1 lender stock market performance beat the NGX index except First Holdco, which got re-rated following a fast and furious rally. First Holdco now stands as the best performer, outpacing the market index,…
Nigeria’s Half-Year Budget Performance Raises Fiscal Concerns Nigeria’s budget for the first half period was roughened by a wide gap between government revenue and spending, raising concerns over the country’s leadership and economic quality. Despite subsidy removal, the government has accelerated borrowings due to revenue non-performance. Bola Tinubu led administration has extended the path walked by his predecessor late Mohammadu Buhari in terms of national borrowings. Surprisingly, the government has been taunting its achievement to increase a significant increase in revenue collection by its agencies including Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Customs among others. A slew of analysts queried that…
NUPRC Under Komolafe Most Transparent Agency – ICPC An Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has ranked the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), under Mr Gbenga Komolafe, the most transparent and ethics-compliant agency in Nigeria. This is contained in the 2025 Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) report released in Abuja on Wednesday The report said contrary to speculations the ‘commission is not a den of corruption’. According to the report, NUPRC, with 91.83 points came tops after the evaluation of 357 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). “The score reflects “Substantial Compliance” with ethics, internal control…
Naira Appreciates by N7.93 at the Official Window The Naira opened positive at the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), recording significant day on day appreciation against the US dollar amid improved supply levels. The Naira strengthened by ₦7.93 per US dollar to close at ₦1,456.56/$, having traded within a range of ₦1,466.00 and ₦1,431.00 per USD during the session. The gross external reserve halted the three-day decline to increase by $7.90 million to $45.22 billion, pushing the Year-to Date (YTD) gain back to +10.61%. Global oil prices rose on Monday after the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept an oil…
Pound Rises Amidst Flat UK Economic Growth Expectation The British pound strengthened against the US dollar to around 1.345 on Monday, its highest in 11 weeks, benefiting from a weaker US dollar amidst flat Q4 GDP growth expectations in the UK. GBPEUR was flat on Monday as markets reacted to the UK’s last notable economic release of the year, the final GDP estimate for the third quarter. According to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK economy grew by just 0.1% between July and September, in line with previous estimates. However, the latest GDP figures also…
CBN Raises N1.7trn from Oversubscribed OMO Bills Auction The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised N1.7 trillion from its oversubscribed open market operations conducted on Monday, according to outcome from its OMO bills sales. The action precedes market expectation of N1.04 trillion inflow from the 23-Dec-25 OMO maturity. In an effort to replace the securities, the CBN floated N600 billion auction across short and mid tenors. The auction was significantly over subscribed given about N2.6 trillion excess liquidity in the financial system. The liquidity position was expected to increase due to N281.53 billion from the 25-Dec-25 Treasury bills maturity, and…