The stock market regains investors’ confidence

The stock market bounced back on Tuesday after Monday’s loss as investors showed positivity as regards to trading of stocks.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange market capitalisation appreciated by N224bn, with 37 stocks making the gainers’ chart.



Good news as stocks are gradually appreciating

Gainers list for June 22 2016

Stock Code		Name		Price	Price Change		% Change
TRN2020S2		TRN2020S2		100.00	98.82		8,374.58%
SDFANMILK		SDFANMILK		20.00	11.00		122.22%
NEWGOLD		NEWGOLD		3,382.00	1,012.00		42.70%
NSEPREMIUM		NSEPREMIUM		1,872.72	513.52		37.78%
NSEBNK		NSEBNK		311.26	76.68		32.69%
SDFCWAMCO		SDFCWAMCO		145.00	34.00		30.63%
NSEPENSION		NSEPENSION		903.89	200.99		28.59%
VETBANK		VETBANK		3.03	0.67		28.39%
SDGEFLUID		SDGEFLUID		0.66	0.14		26.92%
VETGRIF30		VETGRIF30		13.55	2.54		23.07%
NSE50		NSE50		1,436.83	266.29		22.75%
NSECNSMRGDS		NSECNSMRGDS		735.53	135.36		22.55%
VETGOODS		VETGOODS		7.35	1.32		21.89%
NSE30		NSE30		1,324.82	231.28		21.15%
VETINDETF		VETINDETF		21.37	3.70		20.94%
ASI		ASI		29,818.51	5,128.82		20.77%
NSEINDUSTR		NSEINDUSTR		2,141.21	292.54		15.82%
NSEMAINBOARD		NSEMAINBOARD		1,337.67	181.15		15.66%
NSELOTUSISLM		NSELOTUSISLM		1,909.50	206.98		12.16%
LOTUSHAL15		LOTUSHAL15		9.07	0.96		11.84%
GLAXOSMITH		GLAXOSMITHLINE NIG. PLC		18.21	1.68		10.16%
TRANSCORP		TRANSNATIONAL PLC		1.77	0.16		9.94%
CHAMPION		Champion Breweries Plc		4.44	0.40		9.90%
DANABNDS1		DANABNDS1		109.49	9.49		9.49%
ACCESS		Access Bank Plc		6.45	0.35		5.74%
SDTRUSTMB		SDTRUSTMB		0.78	0.04		5.41%
GUARANTY		Guaranty Trust Bank Plc		23.20	1.15		5.22%
FO		FORTE OIL NIGERIA PLC		210.05	10.00		5.00%
NAHCO		Nigerian Aviation Handling Compay Ltd		4.43	0.21		4.98%
AIRSERVICE		Air Services Ltd		1.90	0.09		4.97%
HONYFLOUR		Honeywell Flour Mills Plc		1.92	0.09		4.92%
NSEINS		NSEINS		138.44	6.30		4.77%
PHARMDEKO		Pharma-Deko Plc		1.78	0.08		4.71%
AGLEVENT		A.G. Leventis (Nigeria) Plc		1.12	0.05		4.67%
UBN		Union Bank Nigeria Plc		5.33	0.23		4.51%
NASCON		National Salt Company Plc		8.24	0.32		4.04%
STERLNBANK		Sterling Bank		1.57	0.06		3.97%
UNITYBNK		Unity Bank Plc		1.16	0.04		3.57%
NESTLE		Nestle Foods Nigeria		844.95	28.95		3.55%
NEIMETH		Neimeth int. pharmaceuticals		1.04	0.03		2.97%
DANGCEM		DANGCEM		190.00	5.00		2.70%
DIAMONDBNK		DIAMOND BANK PLC		2.33	0.06		2.64%
INTBREW		International Breweries Plc		20.50	0.51		2.55%
FCMB		FIRST CITY MONUMENTAL BANK PLC		1.70	0.04		2.41%
ZENITHBANK		ZENITH INTERNATIONAL BANK.		17.05	0.36		2.16%
ETERNA		ETERNA		3.08	0.06		1.99%
REDSTAREX		Redstar Express Plc		4.00	0.06		1.52%
UBA		United Bank For Africa Plc		5.03	0.05		1.00%
STANBIC		STANBIC		16.20	0.15		0.93%
NSEASEM		NSEASEM		1,212.54	7.21		0.60%
TIGERBRANDS		TIGERBRANDS		5.00	0.02		0.40%
NB		Nigerian Breweries Plc		143.00	0.51		0.36%
CADBURY		Cadbury Nigeria Plc		18.02	0.02		0.11%

Chartered institute of stockbrokers endorses CBN new exchange rate policy

  

      The Central bank of Nigeria received an applaud from the chartered institute of stockbrokers(CIS) over the new floating exchange rate policy.The CIS has described the move as a bold and positive initiative.


   The CIS added that the new foreign exchange policy will bolster investor confidence, trigger inflow of foreign portfolio investments and boost the velocity of the stock market.
“CIS supports the continual restriction of the 41 excluded items from the interbank foreign exchange market. The exclusion of the items supports the infant industry argument. CIS believes that an admixture strategy of the floating foreign exchange policy, an intensive export promotion drive, support for the infant industry argument and pump priming will give fillip to the economy. Going forward, we are optimistic on the growth prospects of the economy in 2017".

CBN announces new flexible FOREX REGIME

    

   The Central Bank of Nigeria announced a flexible foreign exchange regime that would see the country abolishing the dual exchange rate regime.

  Under this new plan, the official exchange rate of the naira will exist in a "single flexible window," which will be determined by market forces.

The CBN governor,Mr. Emefiele's press conference in Abuja announced a series of measures to manage the new forex policy; these includes the introduction of Forex Primary Dealers, a Futures Market to enable end users to lock down rates and 12 other measures to ensure transparency and stability of the new market.

Stocks gain following CBN new FOREX policy.

Following the announcement of the flexible foreign exchange guidelines, the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index gained 3.17 per cent on Wednesday

The development boosted the NSE market capitalization by N295bn as the value rose to N9.579tn from Tuesday’s close of N9.284tn, while the NSE ASI hit 27,891.96 basis points from 27,034.05 basis points.

   Aggregate of 588.427 million shares worth N3.477bn were traded in 5,088 deals at the close of trading on the floor of the Exchange on Wednesday.

To implement the new forex policy, the CBN governor said the apex bank would on Friday appoint primary and secondary dealers, adding that their dealership level would be categorised based on the volume of transaction that they could handle.

He said based on the assessment of the CBN, the number of primary dealers would be between eight and 10 financial institutions with a minimum transaction volume of $10m.

Emefiele said, “We have decided that the CBN will deal primarily with what we call the foreign exchange primary dealers. We will have non-primary dealers and primary dealers. The guidelines for qualification for being a foreign exchange primary dealer will be on our website.

“There are a number of qualifications, either the size of the bank, or the size of forex transactions it had done before, the level of liquidity, the extent to which those banks have complied with the CBN guidelines and regulations in the past, and their level of preparedness in terms of being able to provide all the soft and hardware that is needed to operate in a very transparent manner.”

The governor also said the market would operate as a single structure through the inter-bank/autonomous window; while the exchange rate would be purely market-driven using the   Thomson-Reuters Order Matching System as well as the Conversational Dealing Book.

The CBN, according to him, will also participate in the foreign exchange market through periodic interventions to either buy or sell foreign exchange as the need arises.


In order to enhance liquidity in the market, he said the CBN would also offer long-tenured foreign exchange forwards of six to 12 months or any tenure to authorised dealers.The governor said with the new policy, the sale of foreign exchange forwards by authorised dealers to end-users must be trade-backed, with no predetermined spreads.

IGI relocates head office

      Industrial and General Insurance Plc known as IGI has moved its corporate head office on Victoria Island, Lagos to a new location, its own five-storeyed building at Agoro Odiyan, in the neighbourhood of the Saka Tinubu business district of Victoria Island, Lagos,in continuation of the restructuring process introduced by the management to reposition the company for greater efficiency.

     In a statement as given by the Managing Director, Mr. Rotimi Fashola, hinted about the relocation from the rented facility, which he said was part of the strategic measures aimed at improving liquidity and operational efficiency.He spoke to the shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Lagos recently.

  He said, “As part of the ongoing efforts to refocus the company, we are moving our corporate head office from its present location to our five-storeyed building at Agoro Odiyan, Victoria Island, Lagos.“We are committed to right-sizing and blocking wastages in order to boost liquidity; that is why we obtained the National Insurance Commission’s approval to restructure our assets. We need funds to sustain our present policy of ensuring prompt payment of claims, commissions and other obligations.”

FG secures N90bn conditional loan for states + conditions to be met inorder to access the loan

   

   The Federal Government on Tuesday announced that it had secured a N90bn conditional loan from  the private sector for state governments through the issuance of bonds in the bond market.

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun,explained that the money to be released to the states was not a bailout like the one it gave out last year, but a loan that was guaranteed by the Federal Government to be provided by the private sector through bond subscription.

     She said based on the agreement with the state governors and the commissioners of finance, N50bn would be released in the first three months, where each of the 36 states would get about N1.3bn.

Thereafter, she noted that N40bn would be released over a nine-month period as the second tranche through the bond market, with each state expected to receive the sum of N1.1bn.She also pointed out that the release of the funds was tied to very stringent conditions that were requested by the private sector investors.


Click to continue;

CEO of Linkedin explains the reason for selling the company to Microsoft – CEO

 

    Microsoft announced Monday that it would acquire LinkedIn, the professional networking site, for $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion.The chief executive of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner, has explained why he sold the company.


    In an email to LinkedIn employees, Mr. Weiner outlined the reasons he chose Microsoft.
See Weiner’s full letter below, which the CEO posted to LinkedIn on Monday:

 December 15th, 2008, marked the first day of the best job I’ve ever had. My rationale for joining LinkedIn was simple: The opportunity to work with Reid Hoffman, a founder I greatly admired and respected; to join an extremely talented and dedicated team; and to massively scale LinkedIn’s membership and business, both of which had the potential to fundamentally transform the way the world connects to opportunity. Never in my wildest dreams, could I have imagined what would happen in the next 7½ years. Our team has grown from 338 people to over 10,000, our membership from 32M to over 433M and our revenue from $78M to over $3 billion.

Despite those accomplishments, we’ve only just begun to realize our full potential and purpose: Our mission to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, and our vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

Today’s announcement, that LinkedIn will be combining forces with Microsoft, marks the next step in our journey together, the next stepping stone toward realizing our mission and vision, and in remaining CEO of the company, the next chapter in the greatest professional experience of my life.

No matter what you’re feeling now, give yourself some time to process the news. You might feel a sense of excitement, fear, sadness, or some combination of all of those emotions. Every member of the exec team has experienced the same, but we’ve had months to process. Regardless of the ups and downs, we’ve come out the other side knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is the best thing for our company.

  
     Every day I come to work, I’m primarily guided by two things:

   First, realizing our mission and vision. While this has always been top of mind for me, it’s never been more so than now. Remember that dystopian view of the future in which technology displaces millions of people from their jobs? It’s happening. In the last three weeks alone, Foxconn announced it will replace 60,000 factory workers with robots, a former CEO of McDonald’s said given rising wages, the same would happen throughout their franchises, Walmart announced plans to start testing drones in its warehouses, and Elon Musk predicted fully autonomous car technology would arrive within two years.Whether it’s worker displacement, the skills gap, youth unemployment, or socio-economic stratification, the impact on society will be staggering. I’ve said it on multiple occasions and believe it even more so every day: creating economic opportunity will be the defining issue of our time. That’s why I’m here and why I can’t imagine doing any other job. Simply put, what we do matters, and matters more than ever.

    The second thing I focus on every day is making our culture and values come to life. Ten years ago, had you asked me about culture and values I would have rolled my eyes and recited a line from Dilbert. But when I started as CEO I began to appreciate just how important they were. Culture and values provide the foundation upon which everything else is built. They are arguably our most important competitive advantage, and something that has grown to define us. It’s one thing to change the world. It’s another to do it in our own unique way: Members first. Relationships matter. Be open, honest and constructive. Demand excellence. Take intelligent risks. Act like an owner.
That’s who we are. That’s LinkedIn.

Culled from ThePunch

Shell plans to exit operations in 10 countries as a measure forCost reduction

   Royal Dutch Shell Group said that it plans to exit oil and gas operations in 10 countries as part of a strategy to raise its cost savings profile to $4.5 billion and narrow its focus to the most profitable businesses such as liquefied natural gas, deepwater oil production and chemicals.

Shell’s Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, who spoke on Tuesday in London as the Group looks to seal the $54 billion acquisition of BG Group, did not name the countries to be affected by the company’s exit plans.

   The company, which has already unfolded plans to divest from Gabon, said the cost saving strategy would also include savings from 12,500 job cuts in 2015 and sale of 10 per cent of its production as part of a $30 billion asset sale plan by 2018.

Shell is currently active in about 70 countries around the world, including Nigeria where it remains the leading producer of hydrocarbons.

Shell plans to focus attention on its operations in just 13 countries, including Brazil, Australia and the United States.

Senate passes law on made-in-Nigeria products

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to re-enact the Public Procurement Act, 2007.

The law will, among other things, make it mandatory for government at all levels to give priority to locally-manufactured products in all their procurement.

The decision of the federal lawmakers followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Public Procurement led by Senator Joshua Dariye.

The law was entitled, “A Bill for an Act to amend The Public Procurement Act to provide for and adopt a local content policy and timely completion of procurement processes and other related matters.”

Dariye said the bill, when assented to, would amend relevant sections of the 2007 Procurement Act to favour the patronage of local manufacturers and ensure speedy completion of projects.

“The amendment proposed by the bill in Section 35 is to review upwards the mobilisation fee from 15 per cent to 25 per cent that may be paid to a supplier or contractor. This is aimed at enhancing timely completion of procurement processes at various phases.”

The Senate also approved the inclusion of Nigerian Institute of Architects and the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors as members of the National Council on Public Procurement.

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said the new amendments to the Act would help stimulate the nation’s economy.

He said, “We all have a role to play to ensure that the Executive complies, especially in the area of giving priority to locally-produced goods. This has helped many countries to develop when they had issues of downturn in their economies.”

Excerpts from ThisDay

Berger Paint Shareholders Approve N217.4m Dividend

Shareholders of Berger Paints Nigeria Plc have agreed to  the directors’ proposal for the payment of a dividend of N 217. 4 million, translating into 75 kobo per share for the company’s 2015 financial year.

Besides, the elated shareholders have expressed support for the company’s automated plant, the first of its kind in Sahara Africa, which is expected to significantly increase the company’s operational efficiencies.

    The Chairman of the company, Dr. Oladimeji Alo at the AGM explained that the company had continued to make significant progress despite the challenging operating environment.

“In spite of the challenging operating environment, our Company continued to sustain its performance, with emphasis on profitability and value creation for shareholders. Our Profit before Tax (PBT) grew from N 249.3 million in 2014 to N 565.2 million in 2015, representing a 126.7 per cent increase.
“As a demonstration of the confidence it has in the future of the Company, and to reward shareholders for their investment, the Board is recommending for your approval, the sum of N 217, 367, 585 to be paid out as dividend. This works out at 75 kobo per share, “Alo said.

     Also speaking at the meeting was the Managing Director, Mr Peter Folikwe, who explained that one of the strategic plans to boost earnings was to reduce cost through operational efficiency.
 Folikwe stated that consumer education would be accorded high priority to strengthen the relationship between the company and its customers.
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Exchange rate as at 17/06/2016

COUNTRY          CURRENCIES       IN NGR(Naira)
 EUROPE                     EUR                         N395/Euro
US DOLLAR               USD                          N345/Dollar

GBPOUNDS               GBP                          N490/Pound