Daily Watch – Stock market likes interest rate hike, Naira does not, MTN sets date for NSE listing

28th July 2016

  • The naira fell to a record low of ₦334.50 per dollar following the CBN’s decision to hike interest rates to 14 percent. Investors expect that the local currency will fall as low as 350, before it starts to appreciate against other foreign currencies. However, the rates, which were raised to at least a 10-year high, also saw the stock market record a sizeable rise in All Share Index. ASI moved from 27,945 on Tuesday to 28,111 as at noon on Wednesday, with market capitalisation surging from ₦9.597 trillion to ₦9.653 trillion about the same time.
  • The Brent crude benchmark has continued its decline, down from a 2016 peak of $52.54. Oil prices plummeted over $1 per barrel within minutes of US energy data showing an unexpected glut of oil in storage. The price of Brent crude quickly dropped to $43.68, after the surprisingly high storage data was revealed, dragging the market deeper into multi-month lows. US crude oil stocks rose by 1.7 million barrels to 521.1 million barrels last week, according to the US Energy Information Administration, a development that shocked analysts who had expected the weekly report to show that stocks had fallen by 2.3 million barrels.
  • This morning, MTN Nigeria announced that it will list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange next year. The company has appointed transaction advisors for the listing, which is part of its agreement for the reduction of its fine by the NCC.
  • Five months after it was attacked and shut down, Shell’s Forcados export line remains offline, causing Nigeria about ₦356.6 billion ($1.6 billion) in revenue. It is still unclear when the pipeline would come back on stream, although the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, had said earlier this month that repairs would be completed by month end. Shell declared a force majeure on February 21, a week after militants blew up a pipeline feeding the Forcados export terminal, knocking out at least 250,000 barrels per day.
  • The FG has said that it will commence its National Home Grown School Feeding Programme with 5.5 million pupils across the country by September. Speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun state, the National Programme Manager, Abimbola Adesanmi, explained that the government has resolved to start the programme, which will accommodate pupils in Primary 1 to 3 at the outset, and would move to other classes as more resources become available. She also said that all the states of the federation, depending on their preparedness, would benefit from the social intervention programme.