The Nation Newspaper

Tag: resurfaces

  • Equities in marginal loss as profit-taking resurfaces

    Equities in marginal loss as profit-taking resurfaces

    Nigerian equities snapped a two-day rally yesterday as investors turned round to take profits on stocks that had led the recent rally. Underlying market sentiments remained largely negative at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) with nearly two losers for every gainer.

    Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped marginally from its opening value of N9.629 trillion to close at N9.627 trillion, representing net capital loss of N2 billion. The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based benchmark index for the stock market, also declined marginally by 0.03 per cent to close at 28,027.23 points as against its opening index of 28,034.32 points.

    Group and sectoral indices showed mixed performance across the sectors. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 0.9 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index lost 0.6 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 1.5 per cent. The NSE Banking Index appreciated by 0.7 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index inched up by 0.2 per cent.

    With 20 losers to 13 gainers, the market performance was driven by the preponderance of losers to gainers as well as losses suffered by highly capitalised stocks, especially in the industrial goods and fast moving consumer goods sectors.

    Nestle Nigeria, the highest-priced stock at the stock market, led the losers with a loss of N19.43 to close at N805.57. Lafarge Africa followed with a loss of N1.28 to close at N46.81. Presco dropped by N1.25 to close at N40.25. Flour Mills of Nigeria declined by 65 kobo to close at N20.05. UACN Property Development Company lost 37 kobo to close at N3.58. E-Tranzact dipped by 28 kobo to N5.41 while Dangote Sugar Refinery lost 18 kobo to close at N6.32 per share.

    The market also showed a slowdown in the momentum of activities. Turnover fell below average with the exchange of 155.58 million shares valued at N1.43 billion in 3,277 deals. Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 28.09 million shares valued at N672.8 million. United Bank for Africa followed with a turnover of 28.04 million shares valued at N119.8 million while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) placed third with a turnover of 14.75 million shares worth N14.98 million.

    On the positive side, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the gainers with a gain of N18.37 to close at N385.88. Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of N3.74 to close at N79.74. Total Nigeria rose by N2.50 to close at N289.50. Guaranty Trust Bank added 15 kobo to close at N24 while United Bank for Africa chalked up 13 kobo to close at N4.31 per share.

    “We expect the market to remain soft, as shown by persistent weak breadth and trading volumes, for the remainder of the week in the absence of more earnings releases,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities stated in post-trading review.

  • Charles Soludo Resurfaces

    Charles Soludo Resurfaces

    So much is happening in the Nigerian political and economic space but one of the major players was on self-exile. Until he broke his silence recently with an article he wrote on the state of the nation, the question on everyone’s lips was where is Charles Soludo?

    The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was once the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State. But after he failed to emerge the governor, he accepted his fate and took a sabbatical from partisan politics to, in his own words, watch the drama from the balcony.

    Soludo is mostly remembered for his recapitalisation programme in the banking sector while he held sway as the CBN governor. But if he had thought that his magic wand as a technocrat would work for him as a politician, he was mistaken. He soon realised that it was a different ball game.

    At a time the media was beginning to nose around for the banking guru, he took a break from his self-imposed exile via an article he wrote to express his feelings about the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan and his APC counterpart, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in the forthcoming presidential election.

    Irrespective of the views he canvassed in the article, he must have gained the leverage he needs to remain relevant. The Director, Media and Publicity of the PDP Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has already picked the gauntlet, firing back at Soludo for rating Jonathan low.

  • Fuel subsidy resurfaces

    Fuel subsidy resurfaces

    • Oil minister’s recipe will paralyse and impoverish the Nigerian citizen

    About three months after the contentious issue of fuel subsidy removal made the headlines in the country, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, rekindled the matter on Tuesday at the ongoing 8th edition of the Oil, Trading and Logistics (African Downstream) Expo in Lagos. According to the minister, who was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Director, Gas, Department of Petroleum Resources, Oliver Okparaojiako, “The truth is that heavy subsidy is unsustainable expenditure even in the long term. It generally promotes energy inefficiency and imprudent consumption … To provide a competitive market environment and sustain supply, the downstream should be fully deregulated”.

    The last time there was a sustained focus on the matter was around July when the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee insisted that retention of fuel subsidy was a fraud against the country. We understand where the Forum of Commissioners for Finance of the 36 states of the Federation who form the bulk of the committee members was coming from: their share of the revenue from the centre government was dwindling. They wanted the shortfall augmented but could not care from where.

    As usual, fuel subsidy came handy, notwithstanding the opposition of the generality of Nigerians to its removal. Indeed, the impression was given then that the country would have collapsed by now if the subsidy had not been removed. Here the country is, still standing, in spite of the hiccups which were not as pronounced then as they are now in the international oil market.

    Fuel subsidy is a product of the importation of petrol and kerosene because our four refineries cannot refine enough for local consumption.  Most of them are presently down; even in the best of times, they have never produced optimally in the past decades, despite the regular Turn-Around Maintenance that we spend billions to do on them.

    The scary news this time from the minister is that there does not seem to be any hope in sight in the near future for the country and other oil-producing African countries, to stop fuel importation. “Notwithstanding the possibility of building new refineries in Africa, including new projects in Angola (Sonaref Refinery); Uganda (Uganda Oil Refinery); Mozambique (Nacala Refinery); and Nigeria, among others, Africa will remain a net importer of petroleum products for at least 20 years to come”, she said.

    The reason? There hasn’t been enough planning for production to catch up with the continent’s bourgeoning population. “ …There are only 24 fuels refineries within the region, with a total refining capacity of 1.6 million barrels for a population that is close to a billion. Population growth means more energy consumption”, Mrs Alison-Madueke said.

    Clearly at a glance therefore, it is obvious that the oil industry has been bogged down by incompetence, lack of foresight and, above all, corruption. These and other factors are responsible for the crippled state of our refineries in Nigeria. Regrettably, rather than address them, the government prefers the easy way out, which is importation, and sees nothing shameful about a major oil producing nation importing fuel.

    But we wonder how Mrs Alison-Madueke arrived at the position that we have to wait for about two more decades to have enough refineries to take care of our local fuel consumption. Where are the Greenfield refineries promised by the government in the wake of the 2012 fuel subsidy riots?  What about the other promises made by the government to douse the nationwide fury then?  Why is the government still keeping the refineries if it cannot make them work optimally?

    We restate, even if for the umpteenth time, that we are not opposed to deregulation of the downstream sector; what we are opposed to is deregulation based on the template of importation. Any deregulation regime must be productive and yield returns, rather than the paralysis of external dependency. If fuel subsidy is unsustainable as the minister claimed, then, perpetual importation of fuel by Nigeria is as undesirable as it is unpardonable.

  • Yinka Taiga resurfaces

    Just when she seemed to have fizzled out in the minds of many, Yinka Taiga, wife of Oloorogun Moses Taiga, who took a sabbatical leave from the social scene, made a sudden reappearance a few days ago. After a long absence from the radar, Yinka’s looks betray all that had been written about her.

    She had recoiled into her shell after a lady named Mercy was linked to her husband. Yinka, the mother of Oloorogun’s famous quadruplet popularly known as the Taiga Squad, refused to be drawn into the ensuing drama, preferring to concentrate on nurturing her babies and allowing the Oloorogun to permanently extinguish the acrid flames from his past.