The Naira has gained about 49.85% from the all-time low of N1, 915/$ at the parallel market in February to N1, 278/$ in the official market as at April 2, 2024.
On Tuesday, it gained 2.35% in the foreign exchange market, ending at N1, 278.58/$ in the official market.
In the parallel market, it closed even stronger at N1, 270 to the dollar.
The Nigerian currency moved from a February low of N1,915/$ to N1,600/$ after the February Monetary Policy Meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria where an unprecedented tightening of 400 basis points on lending rate was announced and to N1,278/$ as of April 2, 2024.
The Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Limited, Bismarck Rewane, revealed that the firming of the Naira could be attributed to a number of factors which include the clearance of $7billion forex backlog by the CBN, tightening stance of the MPC, improvement in oil production and revenue among others.
On the flipside, the local equities nudged slightly lower as the benchmark Index slipped 0.04 percent to settle at 104,518.14 points.
Gains in Tier-1 banking tickers, GTCO (+1.05%), ZENITHBANK (+0.11%) and ACCESSCORP (+2.04%) were offset by losses in FBNH (-1.97%), STANBIC (-1.79%) and TRANSCORP (-1.41%). As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return slipped to 39.78 percent, while the market capitalization shed N24.83 billion to close at N59.10 trillion.
Analysis of Tuesday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 13.81%.
A total of 545.49 million shares valued at N14.61 billion were exchanged in 12,747 deals.
GTCO (+1.05%) led the volume and value chart with 84.65 million units in deals worth N4.48 billion.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.53-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering the declining ones.
MATBAKER (+10.00%) topped twenty-two (22) others on the leader’s table while JBERGER (-9.17%) led fourteen (14) others on the laggard’s log.
In the money market, the Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate saw a significant decrease, with the Overnight NIBOR plunging by 287bps to settle at 24.13 percent, indicating improved liquidity. Moreover, prominent money market rates like the open repo rate and overnight lending rate also experienced declines, closing at 23.47 percent and 24.92 percent, respectively.
In the Nigerian Interbank Treasury Bills market, the Nigerian Interbank Treasury Bills True Yield (NITTY) witnessed declines across various maturities.
Conversely, the secondary market for Nigerian Treasury Bills saw a stable average yield of 16.81 percent, despite notable trading activity.
In the secondary market for FGN Bonds, positive trading activity led to a decrease in the average yield by 0.09 percent to 19.33 percent.
In Nigeria’s sovereign Eurobonds market, significant activity was noted with a prevailing negative sentiment. Selling pressure was evident across the short, mid, and long ends of the yield curve, contributing to a 28 basis points increase in the average yield to 9.70 percent.
Power distribution companies generate N295bn revenue in Q4
Revenue collected by the Electricity Distribution Companies during the fourth quarter period of the year ended December 31, 2023, stood at N294.95 billion.
This is according to the Nigeria electricity report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
According to the NBS, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission made available the electricity consumption data for the period of last quarter in 2023, which it verified.
“On a year-on-year basis, revenue generated in the reference period rose by 26.96 percent from N232.32 billion recorded in Q4 2022,” the report stated.
The DISCOs recorded a growth of 13.4 percent month- on-month when compared with revenue of N260.16 billion in Q3 2023.
Electricity supply was 6,432 (Gwh) in Q4 2023 from 5,732 (Gwh) in the previous quarter.
However, on a year-on-year basis, electricity supply increased by 14.64 percent compared to 5,611 (Gwh) reported in Q4 2022.
In addition, estimated customers during the quarter were 5.83 million, showing a decrease of 3.34 percent from 6.03 million in Q3 2023.
Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, estimated customers also decreased by 1.73 percent in Q4 2023 from 5.93 million in Q4 2022.
Total customer numbers in Q4 2023 stood at 12.12 million from 11.71 million in Q3 2023, showing an increase of 3.46 percent. On a year-on-year basis, customer numbers in Q4 2023 rose by 9.59 percent from 11.06 million reported in Q4 2022.
Similarly, metered customers stood at 5.61 million in Q4 2023, indicating a decrease in the growth rate of 1.32 percent from 5.68 million recorded in the preceding quarter. On a year-on-year basis, this grew by 9.38 percent from the figure reported in Q4 2022 which was 5.13 million.
