Capital Market

SHAREHOLDERS of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc ,  yesterday commended the bank’s adherence to corporate governance, especially  in its dividend policy, even as they  endorsed  the bank’s N1.75 dividend due to every shareholder of the company.

EUROPEAN stocks rose, bouncing back from last week's losses with tech shares rallying after merger talks in the industry spurred rallies in the sector.

On the other hand, ‎Seplat Petroleum Development topped losers chart, shedding N18.08 kobo to close at N370.00, Nestle Nigeria Plc trailed with a loss of N15.00 to close at N805.00 while Guinness Nigeria Plc fell by N2.00 to close at N127.00.

We expect capital levels and the sufficiency of this to remain an ongoing discourse for the Nigerian banks given the probable risks to earnings and book from material asset quality surprises, as well as continued naira depreciation. We maintain our view that dividend payouts and asset growth are likely to be cut near term to build the necessary capital buffers.

THE volume of shares traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) witnessed a downturn last week, as a turnover of 1.382 billion shares worth N12.053 billion changed hands in 16,877 deals. This amount, was however, lower than a total of 3.596 billion units valued at N24.564 billion, exchanged in 24,288 deals during the preceding week.

A quick analysis on the year to date performance of the cement stocks thus revealed that Dangote Cement recorded 25 per cent year o date loss, closely followed by Ashaka Cement and Wapco with 14.20 per cent and 0.12 per cent recorded, respectively while CCNN recorded 13.57 per cent year to date gains.

The U.S. dollar has strengthened against most major currencies as central banks around the world ease monetary policy while the Fed is on track to tighten.

Speaking earlier, President of Pearl awards, Tayo Orekoya commended the management of the SEC on its efforts to return the market to the path of sustainable growth and development adding that the giant strides and remarkable achievements of the new management within short period of time cannot be over emphasized

IN February, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation rose by 8.4 per cent (year-on-year), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.

The equities market closed yesterday on a negative note, as Nigerian Stock Exchange [NSE] All Share index [ASI] depreciated by 1.26 per cent to close at 29,553.69 basis points, compared with the 2.57 per cent depreciation recorded previously. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at 14.73 per cent.

The cost of banking may soon be reduced and other channels of income harnessed with new electronic banking options introduced into the country.

In fact, the Budget Director General revealed that in the 2015 plan, non-oil revenue was for the first time projected to be higher slightly than oil mineral revenue, which makes the plan a non-oil economy Budget.