- Investors gain N535.74bn as equity market opens positive
BY FESTUS OKOROMADU, ABUJA
The Federal Government on Monday approved a N2.18 trillion supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year to cover additional spending in defence, works as well as welfare packages such as wage awards and conditional cash transfers agreed with the Organised Labour.
Unveiling the details to State House correspondents at the end of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Villa, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, said the budget is to “fund urgent issues including national defence and security.”
Bagudu said, “N605bn for national defence and security is to sustain the gains made in security and to accelerate and these are funds that are needed by the security agencies before the year runs out.
“Equally a sum of N300bn was provided to repair bridges including Eko and Third Mainland Bridges as well as construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of many roads nationwide before the return of the rainy season.
“Equally, the sum of N210bn was provided for the payment of wage awards. In negotiation with the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Federal Government agreed to pay N35, 000 each to about 1.5 million employees of the Federal Government and that amount from September, October, November and December 2023.
“Also, N400bn as cash transfer payments. You may recall that the Federal Government secured a $800m loan from the World Bank to pay cash transfers of N25, 000 to 15 million households. The $800 million is for two months, October and November. The President graciously approved that an additional month should be funded by the federal government and that is what this N100bn is for.”
The council also approved N200bn for seed, agricultural input, supplies and agricultural implements and infrastructure to support the expansion of production while N100bn was okayed for the Federal Capital Territory for urgent and immediate capital expenditure infrastructure works.
Investors gain N535.74bn as equity market opens positive
Meanwhile, the Nigerian equities market started the new week on a positive note extending gains from last week by 975.13 basis points, indicating a favourable market breadth.
The NGX All-Share Index advanced by 1.45 percent, to close at 68,111.71 basis points, compared to the previous day’s gain of 0.08 percent, which closed at 67,136.58 basis points.
Demand for industrial heavyweight, DANGCEM, alongside ZENITH BANK and STANBIC, gained 5.77 percent, 0.60, 5 percent, and 9.23 percent in share respectively bolstered the market’s strong performance, thus, outweighing losses in MTNN, TRANSCORP and FIDELITYBNK which declined by 0.20 percent, 0.32 percent and 0.32 percent each, kept the market in the green. As a result, the year-to-date return rose to 32.90 percent, with the market capitalisation increasing by ₦535.74 billion to close at ₦37.42 trillion.
Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 59.47 percent. A total of 430.39 million shares valued at ₦8.26 billion were exchanged in 7,656 deals.
UBA which gained 4.47 percent led the volume chart with 51.26 million units traded, while GEREGU up by 4.08 percent led the value chart in deals worth ₦1.95 billion.
Market breadth closed positive at a 3.56-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. UACN led thirty-one (31) others on the leader’s log while JAIZBANK topped eight (8) others on the laggard table.