South African Rand Strengthens on Softer US Dollar, Bonds Rally The South African rand gained strength against Western currencies on…

Global equities opened on a mixed note after renewed tensions between the US and Iran weighed on sentiment, while investors reacted to a sharp surge in oil prices.

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday after surging more than 5% in the previous session, as conflicting signals from Washington and Tehran over the future of US-Iran negotiations prompted investors to reassess geopolitical risks in the Middle East.

Benchmark yield on Nigerian government bonds eased slightly to 16.31% in the secondary market at the beginning of the week as investors rotated funds away from risky equities.

Ripple’s XRP is down 3.50% to $1.27 in 24h, closely tracking a broader crypto market sell-off primarily driven by institutional risk-off sentiment and leveraged liquidations.

Bitcoin (BTC) price declined by 4.11% to $70,208.55, underperforming a broadly weaker crypto market, primarily driven by sustained institutional selling and heightened geopolitical risk.

Nigeria’s Assets Under Management (AUM) increased from N3.2 trillion to N10 trillion within the last two years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said.

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal seeking the dissolution of the merger between Providus Bank Limited and Unity Bank Plc.

Equities investors lost N181 trillion in a swoop on Monday over risk-off sentiment spotted across key sectoral indices.  The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) opened trading for the month in negative territory, with key market performance indicators declining by 1.3%. 

The Initiates Plc has strengthened its strategic position in East Africa following the acquisition of an additional 20% equity stake in its Ugandan subsidiary, The Initiates Uganda (TIU), raising its ownership interest from 35% to 55%.