Nigerian Stocks Halt Fragile Recovery On Worsening Investors' Apathy
September 17, 2021--September 17, 2021--Unity led gainers, appreciating by 9.62 per cent to close at N0.57.
Nigerian stocks were 0.15 per cent weaker on Thursday, ending a brief and feeble rally reported at the previous session as investors'apathy in shares deteriorated further, causing an already depressed trade volume level to slide by 8 per cent.
WAPCO, Eterna, Honeywell and GTCO led the retreat, which brought stocks to their lowest level so far in September.
Market breadth was negative as 17 laggards emerged compared to 10 advancers.
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Source: allafrica.com
South Africa: SA Economy Grows By 1.2 Percent in Second Quarter
September 7, 2021--South Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 1.2% in the second quarter of 2021, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said.
Maluleke was releasing results of the 2021 second quarter GDP during a press briefing on Tuesday.
During this period-the months of April, May and June- transport, storage and the communication industry increased by 6.9%, making the largest contribution to GDP growth - 0.5 percentage points.
The statistics agency said increased economic activity was reported for land transport and communication services.
The personal services industry increased by 2.5% and contributed 0.4 of a percentage point to GDP growth. Increases were reported for community services and other producers.
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Source: allafrica.com
FDC: Nigerian equities emerged best 'investment asset class' to hedge against inflation
September 5, 2021--Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) has ranked the Nigerian equities as the "best investment asset" class to hedge against inflation between August 2020 and August 2021.
This is contained in the FDC's August 2021 inflation vs investment return data.
In December 2020, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was named the best-performing stock market among the 93 equity indexes tracked by Bloomberg across the world.
The NSE had recorded its best annual return in 2020 - since 2013-with a 45.7 percent gain.
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Source: thecable.ng
Some Nigerian-Based Experts Warn of China's Growing Influence in African Technology
September 2, 2021--Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei says it wants to train up to 3 million African youths to work with cutting-edge digital technology such as artificial intelligence
Already, Nigerian students who took part in a Huawei-sponsored information and communications technology (ICT) competition say the benefits, including possible job placements with the company, are enormous. But experts warn there could be potential negative impacts of China's growing tech influence in Africa.
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Source: allafrica.com
South Africa: UAE, Saudi Arabia brace for economic strategy shake-up
August 24, 2021--South Africa has welcomed a new finance minister at a crucial time for the country's economy
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Enoch Godongwana, the ruling party's head of economic policy as finance minister, in August, after Tito Moboweni, who was well liked by the investment community, decided to resign.
South Africa is reeling from the civil unrest in July that led to the deaths of more than 350 people. The country is also hard-hit by COVID-19, which saw real GDP plunge by 7 percent in 2020. It is expected to rise by 3.1 percent in 2021 but to have annual growth below 2 percent till 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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Source: Zawya.com
AELP Link order platform to boost trading between African exchanges
August 19, 2021--The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) has signed a contract on 30 July to procure an order-routing system to link stockbrokers on seven of Africa's leading securities Exchanges.
The contract is for the design and rollout of the AELP Link technology platform for routing orders and trade confirmations between stockbrokers on the seven bourses.
The Supplier is DirectFN, a global IT firm experienced in capital markets solutions across the Middle East and many emerging and frontier markets, which was awarded the contract after a competitive bidding process that attracted applications from top international suppliers in 18 countries.
The seven exchanges are working together in the African Exchanges Linkage Project (AELP) to boost pan-African investment flows and bring more liquidity to African markets.
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Source: africancapitalmarketsnews.com
Explosion in electronic payments powers start-up boom in Nigeria
August 19, 2021--Down an alley off Kukawa Street in Lagos Island, across from a building abandoned mid-construction, Paulo Communications does a brisk trade. On an average day, dozens of customers walk past fried food and fresh fruit stands to visit his street-side shop and top up their mobile phones or pay their monthly satellite TV bills.
The shop's biggest business is mobile transactions. It completes dozens of withdrawals, deposits and payments for customers every day, using half a dozen different systems offered by telecommunications giants, big banks and the fintech companies that have made Lagos- Nigeria's commercial capital-Africa's hottest start-up scene, accounting for roughly a fifth of the continent’s total venture capital funding in 2020.
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Source: todayuknews.com
Nigeria: IFC Releases New Report on Gender Balance in Nigerian Workplace
August 14, 2021--A new study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, conducted in partnership with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has rated Nigerian companies better than global average with regards to commitment to gender equality.
The study, "Gender Equality in Nigeria's Private Sector", assessed gender gaps at 30 leading companies listed on NGX using the Equileap Scorecard-a methodology that evaluates gaps across four categories.
The categories namely- corporate leadership, compensation and flexible work, corporate policies to promote gender equality, and efforts on commitment, transparency, and accountability in closing gender gaps.
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Source: allafrica.com
n a world first, South Africa grants a patent listing AI as the inventor
August 8, 2021--The innovation in question involves interlocking food containers that are easy for robots to grasp and stack.
At first glance, a recently granted South African patent relating to a "food container based on fractal geometry" seems fairly mundane.
The innovation in question involves interlocking food containers that are easy for robots to grasp and stack.
On closer inspection, the patent is anything but mundane. That's because the inventor is not a human being- it is an artificial intelligence (AI) system called DABUS.
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Source: moneyweb.co.za
Nigerian Stocks Shrink Further As Sell Pressure Weighs On Banks' Shares
July 28, 2021--The index is down by 3.67 per cent year to date.
Nigerian stocks eased 0.03 per cent on Wednesday, elongating the loss reported at the previous trading session and raising concerns about how much the promising start to the earnings season, underscored by a string of strong corporate financial results, could transform the market.
Banking sector equities were most hit by the downtrend, and Zenith joined Vitafoam to lead the pullback at individual stock level, a 155 per cent surge in the nine-month period profit of the mattress and furniture manufacturer incapable of saving its share price from declining.
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Source: allafrica.com