CAPITAL MARKET
FBN Holdings Tops Stock Market Activity Chart with 73.06m Shares
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings (FBNH) topped the activity chart with 73.062 million shares valued at N906.755 million on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) yesterday. Followed was Guaranty Trust Holding Company with 25.039 million shares worth N715.263 million, while Universal Insurance traded 22.771 million shares valued at N4.919 million. United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 20.331 million shares valued at N171.208 million, while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) transacted 18.437 million shares worth N18.864 million. Meanwhile, trading activities on the NGX yesterday closed flat as the market traded N5.570 billion shares. In summary, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased slightly by 0.20 basis points, representing an increase of 0.0005 per cent, to close at 41,814.94 basis points, while, the overall market capitalisation value closed at N21.821 trillion. This Day
BANKING
With its customers deposits maintaining an upward trend, Tier-one lender, Zenith Bank Plc lead the Nigerian banking sector with 69.9 per cent liquidity ratio as at half year ended June 30, 2021 results. Under the current guidelines, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) requires that banks maintain minimum liquidity ratios as follows: Deposit Money Banks (DMBs): 30 per cent; merchant banks: 20 per cent; and non-interest banks: 10 per cent. Liquidity ratios are a class of financial metrics used to determine a bank’s ability to pay off its short-term debts obligations. It is the total specified liquid assets of a bank divided by total current liabilities. Analysis of results of deposit money banks in the country showed that the bank in 2020 financial year reported 66.2 per cent liquidity ratio. This Day
GTCO’s quarterly profit falls to N151.91bn
Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc has reported a profit before tax of N151.91bn for the third quarter of 2021, down 9.23 per cent from N167.35bn in the same period of last year. The holding company for Guaranty Trust Bank Limited said its revenue dropped by 3.46 per cent to N214.77bn in Q3 2021 from N222.47bn in the same period a year earlier. Its unaudited financial statements for Q3 2021 filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Tuesday showed that its earnings per share also dropped to N4.54 from N5.02. GTCO, however, grew its assets from N4.94tn to N5.14tn, while cash and cash equivalents rose to N757.75bn from N592.66bn. Punch
Nigerian banking industry safe, strong –Hassan, NDIC boss
Despite the confidence crisis rocking the global financial system in recent times, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) yesterday, reassured the business community of the safety of their deposits in the banking industry. Managing Director of the Corporation, Mr Bello Hassan, who gave the assurance on the sidelines of the ongoing 2021 workshop for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents in Gombe, Gombe State, on the theme “Ending Extreme Disruption: Resilience and Reinvention for Banking System Stability and Deposit Insurance”, said the Nigerian banking industry remains one of the strongest and most robust in the world. Hassan, who said the NDIC had achieved 97 per cent coverage of insured depositors The Sun
ECONOMY
Expert: Inflation not Likely to Leave Double-Digit Zone Soon
With the continued weakening of the naira and the knock on effect on other areas of the economy, the Chief Commercial Officer, Prosperis Holdings, Mr. Efe Shaire, has expressed concerns over the continued double-digit inflation, noting that the trend is not likely to change in the remaining period of the year. Shaire, who disclosed this yesterday in an interview with THISDAY, said it is expedient to clarify that it is the year-on-year inflation rate that dropped by 0.38% (from 17.01% to 16.63%) while the month-on-month index actually increased further by 1.15%, “this implies that inflation is still on the rise even though the trend from last year was worse month-on-month than the corresponding period this year.” This Day
NNPC, marketers inflated imported petrol figures under Buhari, Jonathan – Sanusi
A former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, said on Tuesday that petrol imports figures were inflated when global oil prices went up during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the regime of the current President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) Sanusi, who spoke on Tuesday at a panel session during the 27th National Economic Summit in Abuja, said the subsidy on petrol was responsible for the inflated figures. Until May 2016, when the Federal Government announced a new petrol price band of N135 to N145 per litre of petrol, private marketers imported petrol into the country and were paid subsidy claims by the government in order to keep the pump price lower than the expected open market price of the product. Punch
PenCom to prosecute defaulting employers, recovers N19.29bn unremitted pensions
The National Pension Commission says it has recovered N19.29bn monthly pensions deducted by employers from employees’ monthly emoluments but not remitted to the Retirement Savings Accounts with their respective Pension Fund Administrators. Figures obtained from PenCom’s quarterly report on Tuesday showed that the recovery included unremitted contributions and sanctions. PenCom also disclosed its plan to take legal action against some of the employees. The report revealed that following PenCom’s issuance of demand notices to some defaulting employers whose pension contribution liabilities had been established by recovery agents, recoveries and penalties were made. Punch
