By Adedapo Adesanya

The last trading day of this week at the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed on a positive note with a 1.42 per cent appreciation on Thursday, June 5.

The unlisted securities market extended its winning streak to four this week, with its total value growing by N67.29 billion to N1.995 trillion from the N1.927 trillion quoted at the preceding session.

In the same vein, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) was up by 46.62 points during the session to finish at 3,388.81 points, in contrast to the 3,292.19 points it ended at midweek.

Yesterday, the price of Okitipupa Plc increased by N22.00 to close at N242.00 per share compared with the previous day’s N220.00 per share, Nipco Plc grew by N19.97 to close at N219.77 per unit compared with Wednesday’s value of N199.80 per unit, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc rose by N6.19 to N79.45 per share from N73.26 per share, and Geo-Fluids Plc jumped by 12 Kobo to close at N2.90 per unit, in contrast to Wednesday’s closing price of N2.78 per unit.

The volume of securities traded by investors during the session soared by 36.7 per cent to 594,423 units from the 434,892 units traded a day earlier, the value of securities went up by 62.1 per cent to N29.9 million from N18.5 million, and the number of deals climbed by 69.7 per cent to 56 deals from 33 deals.

When trading activities ended for the day, Impresit Bakolori Plc was the most traded equity by volume (year-to-date) with 536.9 million units worth N524.8 million, the second place was occupied by Air Liquide Plc with 507.2 million units sold for N4.2 billion, and the third spot was grabbed by Geo-Fluids Plc after exchanging 268.3 million units valued at N475.3 million.

The most active stock by value (year-to-date) remained Okitipupa Plc with 153.7 million units worth N4.9 billion, followed by Air Liquide Plc with 507.2 million units valued at N4.2 billion, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc with 38.8 million units sold for N1.6 billion.

Trading activities will not happen at the NASD today and next Monday due to the public holidays declared by the federal government for Sallah.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Recent policy directions of the Nigerian authorities, including boosting local production, easing foreign exchange (FX) pressure, and the strengthening of non-oil exports have continued to boost the value of the Naira to the US Dollar in the various segments of the forex market.

At the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, June 5, the local currency gained N13.99 or 0.85 per cent against the greenback to sell for N1,552.62/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,565.95/$1.

The Nigerian Naira also appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the same market window by N11.30 to quote at N2,111.62/£1 from N2,122.92/£1, but weakened on the Euro by N6.96 to settle at N1,781.58/€1 versus Wednesday’s value of N1,788.54/€1.

Yesterday was the last trading session of this week because of the Eid-el-Kabir holiday on Friday (June 6) and Monday (June 9).

In the parallel market, the domestic currency traded flat against the United States currency on Thursday at N1,610/$1.

As for the crypto market, it crashed yesterday as a result of the new feud between President Donald Trump of the US and his now-former ally and tech billionaire, Mr Elon Musk.

President Trump’s signature Big Beautiful Bill precipitated an epic fallout between the two, leading to revelations that have spooked the crypto market.

Asked about Mr Musk’s criticism of the bill, the US president told reporters: “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” and said he was “very disappointed in Elon.” This led Mr Musk to post on X denying Mr Trump’s statement.

This led to further posts that stepped up his feud with the president claiming that without him Mr Trump would have “lost the election” and lamented the ingratitude before the president followed up by threatening to terminate the South African’s government subsidies and contracts, prompting a return threat from the SpaceX boss to decommission the Dragon spacecraft (which brought home astronauts stuck on the ISS for months), but he later rescinded the threat.

Mr Musk also suggested President Trump should be impeached and that Vice President JD Vance should replace his principal and made serious allegations.

This development crumbled the price of Mr Musk-backed Dogecoin (DOGE) by 7.2 per cent to $0.1756, as Ethereum (ETH) declined by 5.8 per cent to $2,461.14, and Cardano (ADA) tumbled by 5.7 per cent to $0.6411.

Further, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 4.4 per cent to $84.07, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 4.1 per cent to sell for $679.40, Solana (SOL) slumped by 3.5 per cent to $147.52, Ripple (XRP) depleted by 3.1 per cent to $2.12, and Bitcoin (BTC) slipped by 1.3 per cent to $103,255.76, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Crude oil appreciated on Thursday following news that the US and China agreed to hold more trade talks, as announced during a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Brent crude futures gained 48 cents or 0.7 per cent to trade at $65.34 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude improved by 52 cents or 0.8 per cent to finish at $63.37 a barrel.

President Trump and Chinese leader Xi spoke on phone yesterday and plan to hold trade talks soon

According to reports, the discussions between the leaders of the two world’s largest economies were held at President Trump’s request.

The US president wrote in a post on Truth Social that the call lasted one and half hours, and focused exclusively on trade. He added that a US delegation led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would meet with a Chinese team for negotiations “shortly,” and that both leaders extended invitations to visit each other’s countries.

The talks come amid persistent tension between the world’s two largest economies, and after Trump posted Wednesday that the Chinese leader was extremely hard to make a deal with.

The phone call is the first time that Mr Trump and Mr Xi are confirmed to have spoken since the US leader’s return to office in January. Since then, the pair had slapped huge tariffs on each other, before agreeing a truce last month.

Also, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Trump are also in direct communication as part of Canada’s bid to persuade the US to lift tariffs.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, cut its July prices for Asian crude buyers to nearly the lowest level in two months.

The Saudi price cut followed a move by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) last weekend to increase output by 411,000 barrels per day for July.

The strategy of Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, is partly to punish over-producers by potentially unwinding 2.2 million barrels per day of cuts between June and the end of October.

Wildfires in Canada that threaten to reduce oil production are providing price support with almost 7 per cent of Canada’s production affected.

This comes despite a potentially oversupplied market in the second half of the year with expected OPEC+ production hikes.