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- Nigerian stock market steady as All-Share Index rises by 0.34% on Monday
The price of a 50kg bag of rice has dropped to N58, 000 in some parts of Nigeria, particularly around remote areas, amid imports from the Republic of Benin, a report by S&P Global has said.
The report said that the West African parboiled rice market has slumped to a near two-year low as supplies flood into regional markets following India’s removal of export duties on parboiled rice.
A 50kg bag of rice has dropped from N80, 000 to N58, 000 as a result of the influx of the commodity to neighbouring Benin Republic, from where it enters Nigeria.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity, reports that the influx of lower-priced rice from India has filled warehouses to capacity in Benin, according to market participants.
Between September and December, India was said to have exported approximately 2.11 million metric tonnes of parboiled rice to West Africa, up sharply from 720,000 metric tonnes in the same period of 2023.
According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, in 2024 as a whole, India exported 5.35 million metric tonnes of parboiled rice to West Africa, up from 3.9 million metric tonnes in 2023.
Commenting, a trader based in Togo said the current situation in almost every region of West Africa is the same, quiet and bearish.
As Nigeria, the largest rice market for Benin continues to illegally import rice from Benin, both local and imported rice prices in Nigeria have plummeted over the past two weeks.
It was said that the price for a 50kg local rice had dropped from N80,000 or N90,000 to N60,000, while Indian imported rice prices have dropped to N80,000.
“Despite the price decline, demand has not risen correspondingly. With prices continuing to slide daily, buyers are adopting a cautious approach, waiting for stabilisation before making purchases,” the report said.
A trader based in Benin said demand was only likely to increase once the Christmas season comes into focus around September.
It was gathered that Nigeria is the major consumer of rice imported into the Benin Republic.
In border communities in Ogun State, the staple sells at prices below N50, 000 due to the proximity of their communities to the Benin Republic.
Despite the ban on the importation of rice, the commodity remains the most smuggled product, even as the Nigerian Customs Service has sleepless nights battling rice smugglers.
Nigerian stock market steady as All-Share Index rises by 0.34% on Monday
Equities trading in Nigeria’s domestic bourse kicked off the week on a brighter note as activities at both the listed and unlisted stocks market closed on a positive trend.
At the Nigerian Exchange Limited, buying interest in GTCO (+6.4%) and TRANSCORP (+6.3%) drove the All-Share Index higher by 34 basis points or 0.34% to 106,116.18 points, up from 105,752.61 points posted at the close of trading last Friday.
Consequently, the NGX market capitalisation rose to N66.69 trillion as investors gained N228.49 billion, while the month-to-date and year-to-date returns settled at +0.4% and +3.1%, respectively.
The total volume of trade advanced by 16.9% to 500.59 million units, valued at N12.11 billion, and exchanged in 17,637 deals. ACCESSCORP was the most traded stock by volume at 60.87 million units, while GTCO was the most traded by value at N2.18 billion.
Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+2.4%), Banking (+1.3%), Insurance (+0.3%), and Industrial Goods (+0.3%) indices advanced while the Oil & Gas (-2.9%) index declined.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (2.8x), as 45 tickers gained relative to 16 losers.
INTBREW (+10.0%) and LEGENDINT (+10.0%) led the gainers, while LIVESTOCK (-10.0%) and ARADEL (-9.9%) recorded the highest losses of the day.
NASD OTC – Unlisted equities
Similarly, trading of unlisted equities at the NASD Securities Exchange (NASD OTC) closed positively as the NASD Securities Index rose by 0.41% to reach 3,282.42 points, up from 3,269.11 points achieved on Friday.
Transactional analysis shows that a total of 692,885 units of stocks, valued at N22.61 million were exchanged in 38 deals.
At the close of day’s trading, the NASD OTC posted four (4) gainers and one (1) loser.
MONEY MARKET & FIXED INCOME
Transactions at the money market on Monday were relatively stable as the overnight lending rate remained unchanged at 26.9% amid inflows from FGN bond coupon (N259.96 billion).
The Treasury bills secondary market traded with bullish sentiments, as the average yield contracted by 4bps to 20.8%. Across the curve, the average yield declined at the short (-3bps), mid (-3bps) and long (-5bps) segments, driven by demand for the 87DTM (-3bps), 178DTM (-3bps) and 269DTM (-8bps) bills, respectively. Similarly, the average yield declined by 7bps to 27.1% in the OMO segment.
Proceedings in the FGN bond secondary market were quiet, albeit with a bearish undertone, as the average yield advanced by 1bp to 18.7%. Across the benchmark curve, the average yield expanded at the short (+1bp) and mid (+2bps) segments, driven by profit-taking activities on the JUL-2030 (+6bps) and FEB-2031 (+9bps) bonds, respectively. However, the average yield remained unchanged at the long end.