Index to Nigerian Newspapers

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Sub-Saharan African countries to eliminate tax exemptions and increase domestic revenue to reduce fiscal deficits, rather than reducing fiscal expenditure. The IMF also suggested that increasing women's participation in the labor force could boost GDP by about 8% in the coming years, despite the weakest medium-term growth outlook in over 30 years.

The bullish trading experienced in recent times on the Nigerian Exchange Limited slowed this past week, recording a gain of N8bn for investors.

With market capitalisation ending at N35.994tn previous Friday, trading activities kicked off on a positive note on the NGX, appreciating to N35.539tn on Monday.

It went higher to N35.932tn on Tuesday, but suffered a continuous decline in the next three trading sessions, following the announcement of an increase in the Monetary Policy Rate to 18.50 per cent, to end at N35.402 on Friday.

The NGX All-Share Index and Market capitalisation appreciated slightly by 0.02 per cent.

Similarly, all other indices finished higher except for NGX Main Board, NGX CG, NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX AFR. Bank Value, NGX AFR. Div. Yield, NGX MERI Value, NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Industrial Goods Indices which depreciated by 0.16 per cent, 0.90 per cent 2.21 per cent, 1.60 per cent, 2.20 per cent, 1.78 per cent, 0.65 per cent, 2.36 per cent and 0.31 per cent respectively, while the NGX ASeM and NGX Sovereign Bond Indices closed flat.

A total turnover of 2.854 billion shares worth N37.645bn in 41,547 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the NGX, in contrast to a total of 4.182 billion shares valued at N99.048bn that exchanged hands in previous week in 41,446 deals. The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.936 billion shares valued at N27.704bn traded in 20,839 deals; contributing 67.84 per cent and 73.59 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value.