Author: Marketforces Africa

US Dollar Drops against Trading Majors in FX Markets The US dollar fell against its major trading partners early Wednesday, except for a gain versus the Canadian dollar, ahead of a busy morning of data releases and the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement at the conclusion of its two-day interest rate policy setting meeting in the afternoon. Housing starts data for April and weekly jobless claims data, released a day early due to the US Juneteenth holiday Thursday, are due to be published. Weekly petroleum stocks inventory data are set to be released at 10:30 am ET and weekly natural…

British Pound Strengthens Ahead of BoE Rate Decision The British pound, or the sterling, edged closer to $1.35, remaining near its highest levels since 2022, continuing to benefit from broad-based US dollar weakness. Inflation and economic concerns are expected to affect the Bank of England’s decision on rates on Thursday. FX traders said Sterling’s gain was noted to be supported by the latest UK inflation data, which showed that price pressures remain elevated. GBPUSD rose to 1.3449 from 1.3428 at the Tuesday US close but was well below a level of 1.3566 at the same time Tuesday morning. UK consumer prices…

Zenith Bank Drops Hints on Dividend, Plans to Exit CBN Forbearance Zenith Bank Plc has assured shareholders and the investing public that the financial services company will exit forbearance granted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the first half of the year. In a statement, the tier-1 lender responded to the CBN directives, expressing optimism about paying dividends to its shareholders in the current financial year. The company secretary, Michael Out, pointed out that it had successfully raised and surpassed the new regulatory capital requirement of N500 billion. It explained, “We refer to the recent circular issued by…

Oil Prices Decline on Ceasefire Hopes in Middle East Oil prices declined on Wednesday as diplomatic momentum toward a ceasefire in the Middle East while the market weighed uncertainties in the US Federal Reserve’s rate policy strategies. There are also concerns about the potential effects of Washington’s protectionist trade policies on the global economy, which weigh on market sentiment. International benchmark Brent crude decreased by around 1.2%, trading at $74.80 per barrel, down from $75.70 at the previous session’s close. Similarly, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell by about 1.3%, settling at $72.64 per barrel, compared to $73.60…

MTN, Airtel, Others to Charge Subscribers for USSD from June 18 Telecom subscribers in Nigeria will now be charged directly by their mobile network operators, MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile, for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services, starting Wednesday, June 18, 2025. This was made known in a statement signed by Mr Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), and the Publicity Secretary, Mr Damian Udeh. According to Adebayo, the change is in line with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) determination of USSD pricing and services, developed in collaboration with the Central Bank of…

Amazon CEO says AI to Reduce Number of Workers Needed Amazon’s management on Wednesday said that it expects that artificial intelligence (AI) software will reduce the number of office workers at the world’s largest online retailer. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy wrote in an email to employees. He said it is difficult to predict how the overall workforce will evolve, but in the next few years, it is expected that AI efficiency gains will lead to fewer…

Oando Rallies Turn to Head Fake, Loses 15.6% in 2 Days Indigenous energy company Oando Plc lost its steam in the equities market; its share price dropped twice in the last two trading sessions on the Nigerian Exchange trading platform after a series of uptrends last week, which suggested that the oil-linked stock had escaped the bear trap. Oando Plc’s price has declined by about 15.6% in two consecutive trading sessions. This has raised concerns about whether its past week’s positive price movements were a head fake. According to data from the Nigerian Exchange, Oando Plc’s share price fell sharply,…

CBN to Offer N162.02bn Bills for Subscription Midweek Ahead of N27.19 billion that is about to mature, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is set to conduct its second Treasury Bills (T-Bills) auction for the month on Wednesday. The total offer size is N162.02 billion, split across three maturities, and analysts said rates could taper further on the expectation that demand will remain healthy. The authority will open 91-day bills worth N22.02 billion for investors’ subscription; the expected cutoff rate is projected to range between 17.84% and 17.94%. The Central Bank also planned to open N40 billion worth of 182-day…

Moody’s Upgrades Dangote Cement Ratings, Revised Outlook Moody’s has upgraded Dangote Cement Plc’s credit or long-term corporate family rating (CFR) to B3 from Caa1, probability of default rating to B3-PD from Caa1-PD and long-term national scale CFR to A3.ng from Baa3.ng. According to the rating note, Moody’s analysts also upgraded the senior unsecured ratings of Dangote Cement’s two N300 billion senior unsecured domestic medium-term note programs (DMTN) to (P)B3 from (P)Caa1 and the senior unsecured medium-term note program (MTN) national scale ratings (NSRs) to A3.ng from Baa3.ng. “We also upgraded the senior unsecured ratings of the notes issued by Dangote…

Equities Investors Lose N170bn as Oando, First Holdco Fall Equities investors lost more than N170 billion on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) as sell pressures on Oando, First Holdco, and other decliners dragged down market indicators. Oando Plc lost 10% of its market value, and First Holdco slipped by 4.2%, though telecom company MTN Nigeria climbed by 2.2%, and Mutual Benefit Assurance rallied. According to data from the local exchange, the all-share index reduced by 0.28%, shedding 328.08 basis points, to close at 114,910.16 as sell pressure persisted. Equities market capitalisation or portfolio value of listed stocks lost ₦170.36 billion, representing…