NIGERIA STOCK EXCHANGE N.S.E SUSTAINED POSITIVE GROWTH ON THURSDAY.

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday sustained positive growth with the market capitalisation appreciating further by N43 billion.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market capitalisation which opened at N8.525 trillion improved by N43 billion or 0.50 per cent to close at N8.568 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index rose by 124.93 points or 0.50 per cent to close at 24,909.88 against 24,784.95 posted on Wednesday.

NAN reports that Mobil Oil led the gainers’ table for the day, growing by N5.01 to close at N154.01 per share.

Nigerian Breweries came second with a gain of N1.88 to close at N105.02, while Seplat chalked up N1 to close at N336 per share.

Berger Paint increased by 42k to close at N8.94 and Zenith Bank appreciated by 33k to close at N12.13 per share.

Conversely, 7UP recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers’ chart, shedding N4.41 to close at N142.59 per share.Okomu Oil trailed with a loss of N1.20 to close at N28.80, and Union Homes lost 41k to close at N3.87 per share.

Champion Breweries shed 15k to close at N2.95, while Premier Breweries depreciated by 14k to close at N2.81 per share.

NAN also reports that Zenith Bank was the toast of investors, trading 21.56 million shares worth N259.39 million.

It was followed by Guaranty Trust Bank with a total of 21.52 million shares valued at N345.55 million, while FBN Holdings traded 17.07 million shares worth N57.46 million.

Skye Bank came fourth with a turnover of 16.74 million shares valued at N16.13 million and United Capital exchanged 12.84 million shares worth N19.13 million.

In all, investors staked N1.81 billion on 178.78 million shares transacted in 3,223 deals, an increase of 12.26 per cent.

NAN reports that this was against 159.26 million shares valued at N1.11 billion achieved in 2,698 deals on Wednesday.

NO CURRENCY SWAP DEAL WITH CHINA-FG

As you know, a lot of importers now are complaining that they are not able to access dollars to buy goods and things like that. So, if in addition to dollars, we have the Yuan, then they can also have it available. So, it has given us a greater opportunity for our economy so that those people can also now import notwithstanding the shortage of dollars. So, that is really what it is more about, rather than a swap deal or any such thing.
“It’s not really a swap. What it is, is that as the Chinese economy goes strong, there is some pressure on them from trading partners, international financial institutions. They agreed that the money should be internationalised. So, they started that for a while. They were protecting it also. They did not allow it to be fully exchangeable. But now, their economy is fully strong, they are looking for a way to internationalise the currency. Now, they are saying essentially that they want to segment it. For Southern Africa, South Africa is going to be the sort of a hub for the currency. In West Africa, they’re looking for a hub. Ghana is interested in being the hub for the currency to circulate for those who want to use it. It is not compulsory. But Nigeria is a bigger country with bigger economy. So, that does make sense. And they became a kind of attracted to Nigeria to be the hub.