Despite good results released by some quoted companies, trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday continued downward trend, shedding N38 billion. Market Capitalisation of listed equities declined further by 0.26 per cent to N14.720 trillion from N14.758 trillion recorded the previous day.
The NSE All Share Index depreciated by 105.74 basis points to 40749.86 from 40855.64 traded on Tuesday. Investors traded 401.413 million shares worth N6.771 billion in 5370 deals against 365.719 million shares valued at N6.269 billion exchanged hands in 4173 deals.
An analysis of the investment for the day showed that Forte Oil led gainers table during the day, gaining N1.10 kobo to close at N41.90 kobo, Stanbic IBTC followed with a gain of N1.00 to close at N49.00, Guaranty Trust Bank gained N0.90 kobo to close at N44.30 kobo, Lafarge Wapco increased by N0.55 kobo to close at N44.00, Access Bank added N0.55 kobo to close at N11.80 kobo
On the contrary, Mobil Oil recorded the highest loss for the day, shedding N2.00 to close at N13.75 kobo, Dangote Flour trailed with a loss of N1.45 kobo to close at N13.75 kobo, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated declined by N0.65 kobo to close N16.35 kobo, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc depreciated by N0.50 kobo to close at N38.80 kobo while Nascon decreased by N0.50 kobo to close at N21.00
FBNHoldings was the most active stock during the day, exchanging 70.755 million shares worth N863.582 million Zenith International Bank followed accounting for 61.227 million shares worth N1.671 billion, Fidelity Bank traded 43.701 million shares cost N109.840 million Access Bank sold 28.922 million shares valued at N332.439 million, GTBank exchanged 22.903 million shares valued at N993.349 million.
Nigeria extends pact with Sierra Leone to energy, power, agric
The Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Dr Habbis Ugbada, said that the federal government was considering extending its bilateral agreement with the Republic of Sierra Leone to cover energy, power and agricultural sectors.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Freetown yesterday, Ughada, said that extending the bilateral arrangement to those sectors would benefits both countries.
He said that while Nigeria was blessed with vast land and many agriculture produce, Sierra Leone major food was rice, hence Nigeria could exploit that area to boost its foreign earnings by exporting other food items to Sierra Leone.
He said that it was difficult to get some food stuffs such as Semolina in Sierra Leone except when they were imported from Nigeria or other countries.
“So, if there is that bilateral relations between the two countries Nigeria can bring in those types of foods including yams and other produce.
“That will boost Nigeria’s GDP. The government of Nigeria as it is today is developing farming strategy state-by-state.
“If we can do that by exporting to them, definitely the returns will boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. It will promote agricultural and bilateral relationship between the two countries.
“It will also be a pride to the host country that their brother is solving most of their problems.’’
The ambassador described the bilateral relationship between Nigerian and Sierra Leone as a long term relationship.
He said that both Nigeria and Sierra Leone established diplomatic relationship as far back as 1961.
Ugbada added that both countries had enjoyed robust relationship due to their close cultural affinities, historical ties, shared values, and common interests.
“The subsisting friendly posture of President Ernest Koroma’s government, favourable economic policies, places Nigeria in a beneficial stance.
“This is why I say that we currently have not less than eight financial institutions in the country, with modern techniques being introduced.
The banks according to him were UBA, Zenith, GTB, Skybank, Keystone, Access First International Bank, First Bank and local financial institution, called Live Above Poverty (LAPO).
