Daily Watch – Shell protests enter day 5, Stocks fall from their 33-month highs

16th August 2017

  • Protesters on Tuesday dragged the shutdown of a Shell crude oil facility in the Niger Delta into its fifth day, after storming the flow station demanding jobs and infrastructure development last week. Echoing a common complaint in the region that produces most of Nigeria’s oil, the protesters said they were not benefiting from the region’s oil wealth and wanted an end to the oil pollution that has ruined much of the land. Protesters still numbered around 800 people, praying and cooking under canopies set up at the Belema Flow Station in Rivers state as security personnel watched. Shell had evacuated staff late on Thursday, the day before the protest, and shut the facility when it became clear the demonstrators were on their way there, the company has said.
  • NEITI has announced that its ongoing independent audit of the oil and gas industry covering 2015 recorded 94 percent compliance by companies and relevant government agencies. According to the audit report, while 14 out of the 65 companies that participated in the exercise topped the ranking table with a maximum score of 100 percent, 15 others scored between 51st and the 62nd positions. Two subsidiaries of the NNPC, namely: the NPDC and the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC, as well as the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria, amongst others, were listed among the 15 firms occupying the bottom positions in the ranking. Some of the 14 companies that topped the ranking table included Chevron Nigeria, Consolidated, Continental, Eroton, Esso Exploration, Mobil Producing Nigeria, and Niger Delta Petroleum Resources. NEITI said 20 companies scored between 80 percent and 88 percent while 12 others recorded between 72 and 75 percent.
  • Nigerian stocks fell on Tuesday to a near two-week low, dragged down by losses in banking, cement and fast moving consumer good sectors, as some investors took profits from previous gains in the market, traders said. The main share index declined 2.25 percent to 37,096 points, bringing it down to a level last seen on 3 August. The market had rallied for eight consecutive weeks and peaked at a 33-month high last week before profit takers took advantage of the gains to sell their holdings. Low stock valuation and the relative stability in the foreign exchange market over the last few months have helped to draw many offshore investors into the equity market, leading to a surge in the domestic equity market.
  • Nigeria plans to raise ₦135 billion ($442.62 million) in bonds on August 23, the debt office said on Tuesday. The debt office will sell ₦35 billion of bonds due in 2021 and ₦50 billion each of bonds due in 2027 and in 2037, using a Dutch auction system. Settlement is expected two days after the sale. The bonds are re-openings of previous issues. The country expects a budget deficit of ₦2.36 trillion this year as it tries to spend its way out of a recession. It expects to raise money to cover more than half the deficit from the local market.
  • Guaranty Trust Bank says it has recorded an 18 percent increase in Profit Before Tax for the fiscal half-year ended 30 June 30. The bank, in a statement, said its PBT rose from ₦85.69 billion in 2016 to ₦101.1 billion in 2017. The financial performance presented to the Nigerian and London Stock Exchange showed the bank’s loan book dipped by six percent from ₦1.590 trillion recorded as at December 2016 to ₦1.491 trillion in June 2017 with a decrease in customer deposit by one percent to ₦1.966 trillion from ₦1.986 trillion in December 2016. According to the statement, it closed the half-year ended June 2017 with Total Assets and Contingents of ₦3.75 trillion and Shareholders’ Funds of ₦538 billion. The bank is proposing an interim dividend of 30 kobo per ordinary share of 50 kobo each for the period.