Author: Olu Anisere

Nigerian Exchange Slumps as Equities Investors Lose N455bn Due to sell pressure, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) market capitalisation plunged sharply on Wednesday, reducing equities investors’ portfolio value by N445 billion after disinflation. The local bourse closed negative following the announcement that Nigeria’s rebased consumer price index increased to 24.2% after a two-month disinflation experience. This stokes pressures in a market that has already been plagued with a massive stock-selling rally, year-to-date return moderated, and other key performance indicators retreated. The trading session closed in the red midweek, with key market performance indicators—the all-share index and market cap—both dropping by 0.68%.…

Oil Prices Decline over Tariffs, Demand Concerns In the global commodity market, the prices of crude oil declined across grades amidst the U.S.-China tariff standoff and demand concerns as global economies come under pressure. Also supporting the bearish performance, the U.S. crude oil inventories surge ahead of OPEC+ output boost in May. The international benchmark, Brent crude, decreased by around 1.47%, trading at $63.44 per barrel, down from $64.38 at the previous session’s close. The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) decreased by 1.58%, settling at $60.06 per barrel, compared to its prior session close of $61.03. The tariff-driven standoff…

Interbank Rates Ease as Remita, States Inflows Boost Liquidity Money market rates fell as Remita and other states  inflows bolstered liquidity levels in the financial system. The market also experienced banks depositing excess cash with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Standing Deposit Facility in the absence of funding pressures. The short-term benchmark interest rate movements were kept in check as the banking system liquidity ended the day in surplus, closing at more than N534 billion on Tuesday. Hence, the Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate (NIBOR) declined across all tenors, indicating improved liquidity conditions in the banking system. The liquidity injection…

Fitch Affirms Standard Bank Group at ‘BB-‘; Outlook Stable Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Standard Bank Group Limited (SBG) and its main operating subsidiary, The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (SBSA), at ‘BB-‘ with a stable outlook. According to Fitch, the long-term IDRs of SBG and SBSA are driven by their standalone creditworthiness, as expressed by their ‘bb-‘ Viability Ratings (VRs). The rating note said the VRs are one notch below the implied VRs of ‘bb’ due to operating environment and sovereign rating constraints. This underlines the concentration of activities in South Africa…

Nigeria Records Significant Drop in Petrol Imports – NMDPRA The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says Nigeria has significantly reduced its importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). The Chief Executive Officer, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, said this during the Meet-the-Press briefing series organised by the Presidential Communications Team (PTC) at the State House in Abuja on Tuesday. Ahmed said the county’s PMS daily importation had dropped from 44.6 million litres in August 2024 to 14.7 million litres as of April 13. He attributed the 30-million-litre drop in imports to increased contributions from local refineries. Ahmed also disclosed that…

SEC to Broaden Access to Market-Based Financing Instruments for SMEs The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it is working to broaden access to market-based financing instruments for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Dr Emomotimi Agama, the Director-General of SEC, said this during a meeting with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Tuesday in Abuja. Agama said the commission would make this happen through its newly established Office of Small Business Advocacy (OSBA). He said SEC would collaborate with SMEDAN to implement a joint nationwide sensitisation on ‘Financing SMEs through the Capital Market.’Agama said the…

Nigerian Exchange Expands as Equities Investors Gain N19bn The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) all-share index climbs as equities investors portfolio value appreciated by more than N19 billion. Stocks rebounded modestly from the previous day’s loss to close today’s session on a positive note, as key performance indicators advanced by 0.03%. This uptick is a result of the buying sentiment of investors in some mid- to high-capitalized stocks, including UNILEVER (9.65%), INTBREW (4.36%), WEMABANK (3.91%), ACCESSCORP (3.13%), JAIZBANK (1.69%), UBA (0.80%), FIDELITYBK (0.55%), NB (0.31%), STERLINGNG (0.19%), TRANSCORP (0.12%), among others. Today’s mild recovery was largely driven by renewed buying interest in…

Meta, MTN Partner to Enhance Voice, Video Calling Quality Meta and MTN Group have announced a groundbreaking partnership to enhance the quality of voice and video calls on real-time communication platforms, including WhatsApp, across 12 MTN markets. This is contained in a statement by the company on Tuesday in Lagos. Diego Mari, the Head of Network Ecosystem Engineering, Meta said the collaboration would allow them to deploy advanced solutions for an unparalleled real-time experience in Nigeria. Mari added that it would showcase Meta’s dedication to elevating service quality and improving user experience, while striving for continued efficiency in traffic delivery.…

FCCPC Raids Utako Market, Seals Shops Over Rebagged, Underweight Rice The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has raided and sealed some shops at Utako market for selling re-bagged and under-weight bags of rice. Sealing the shops in Abuja on Tuesday, Mrs Boladale Adeyinka, the Director, Surveillance and Investigations Department of FCCPC, said the raid followed an intelligence gathered by the Commission. She said the intelligence showed that traders in the market were re-bagging local rice in foreign rice bags and selling them at exorbitant prices as imported rice. Adeyinka described the move as exploitative, and against consumer economic…

$17bn: Nigeria Positions as World Bank’s Largest Portfolio in Africa Nigeria has been named as the World Bank’s largest portfolio in Africa, with commitments totaling around $17 billion, Ousmane Diagana, vice president for Western and Central Africa, who led a high-level delegation from the World Bank to Abuja, said. Diagana met today with the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to reaffirm support for President Bola Tinubu’s economic reform agenda and development priorities.  Diagana praised Nigeria’s recent GDP growth of 3.4%—the strongest since 2014 — and commended the government’s progress in stabilising the economy…