Author: Julius Alagbe

Moody’s Affirms Egypt’s High Credit Risk Ratings, Outlook Positive Moody’s Ratings has affirmed the Government of Egypt’s Caa1 long-term foreign and local currency issuer ratings and maintained the positive outlook. The global ratings agency concurrently affirmed Egypt’s foreign-currency senior unsecured ratings at Caa1, and its foreign-currency senior unsecured MTN program rating at (P)Caa1. The positive outlook, in place since March 2024, continues to reflect the prospects for an improvement in Egypt’s debt service burden and external profile, Moody’s said. “As expected at the time of our last rating action, progress in external and fiscal rebalancing has been made”. Analysts explained…

Nigerian Bonds Yields Slide as Investors ‘Get In’ Investors ramped up more bonds in the secondary market as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) monetary policy committee kept the benchmark interest rate at 27.50% at the just-concluded meeting. Fixed income assets have become attractive, now offering inflation-protected returns. The wave of optimism swept through as investors took time to digest the outcome of the CBN monetary policy committee meeting. Amidst the cautious atmosphere, buying interest was strongest at the mid-segment of the yield curve. With the sharp decline of the inflation rate, the real return on fixed-interest securities was upturned…

Jumia Posts $97 million Loss as Revenue Declines Jumia Technologies AG pretax loss moderated by 1% to $97.559 million in financial year 2024 as the company’s revenue declined, according to an audited financial statement released today. The company loss was relatively flattish year on year amidst strong costs savings culture and move to ramped up revenue generating activities. For 2025, the company expect loss to moderate further. “We forecast Loss before Income Tax to be in the range of negative $65 million to negative $70 million, a year-over-year decrease of 33% and 28%, respectively”, Jumia said in its outlook for…

Iran Executed 975 People in 2024 – Report Human rights activists on Thursday said the Iranian Government executed at least 975 people in 2024, in a “horrifying escalation in the use of the death penalty.” The figure is a 17 per cent increase from the 834 recorded in 2023, according to an annual report by the Oslo-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM). It is also the highest number of executions recorded since IHRNGO’s first annual report in 2008 and significantly higher than the average in that span. Javaid Rehman,…

CBN Hacks Rates on Treasury Bills as Inflation Falls Discount rates on Nigerian Treasury bills fell sharply across standard maturities as investors bet large on naira assets after inflation plunged. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) conducted a primary market auction midweek where the authority offered N700 billion worth of Treasury bills across 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day tenors. Despite a huge liquidity shortfall of more than N1 trillion in the money market, investors subscriptions came heavy, according to some traders. Subscriptions came more than threefold as the interest rate outpaced the inflation rate for the first time in a long…

Dangote Cement Cancels Treasury Shares, Price Steadies Dangote Cement Plc stock market price steadied at N480 as the company cancelled its repurchased or treasury shares in the equities market today, stockbrokers revealed. Following a successful share buyback program in 2024, the cement company has successfully cancelled its Treasury shares. The cement company had launched a series of share repurchase programs in the recent past years to stem price volatility on the Nigerian Exchange. A total of 166,948,153 Treasury Shares, a portion of previously issued outstanding shares repurchased from shareholders by Dangote Cement Plc, were canceled on the exchange today. Data…

Manchester United Posts $7.80m Net Loss in Q2-2025 Manchester United (MANU) posted $7.80 million as net loss in the second quarter amidst pressure on revenue. Its revenues took a hit from the club taking part in the less lucrative Europa League competition. The Men’s first team reached the round of 16 of both the UEFA Europa League and the FA Cup while the Women’s team reached the Quarter-Finals of the Women’s FA Cup Total revenues declined 12% in the quarter primarily driven by lower Broadcasting revenues, which declined 42.1% to £61.6 million, related to participation in the UEFA Europa League…

BUA Foods, GTCO See Intraday Rally, NGX Index Jumps BUA Foods Plc is driving an intraday rally on the Nigerian Exchange, NGX, following a steep price decline in the recent past. The Nigerian Exchange All Share Index is trending higher due to strong demand for one of the highly capitalised stocks in the market, with support from GTCO. Some banking names are trading relatively mixed, though telecom stocks appeared to have been tucked to a point. Power sector listed companies remained stagnated while the market has halted tempo on Dangote Cement. Geregu Power isn’t moving and is unlikely to move…

Bonds Yield Falls to 20% as Market Reacts to Inflation The average yield on Nigerian government bonds reduced to 20% following buying momentum witnessed in the secondary market. Investors were active in the fixed income market following the release of the Nigeria January 2025 consumer price index reading, analysts at CardinalStone Limited said in an investors’ note. Real return on fixed interest securities has become 3.02% positive on the back of a lower inflation rate of 24.48% , and much higher benchmark interest rate of 27.50% ahead of monetary policy meeting. Nigeria’s headline inflation rate moderated to 24.48% year on…

Interbank rates eased despite a huge liquidity deficit in the banking system totalling more than N1 trillion. The financial system has maintained a negative liquidity profile in the last five days in the money market in the absence of significant inflows.