Mr Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, NSE, during the ceremony on Friday in Lagos, described the novelist as a testament that Nigeria is blessed with talented people.

Onyema, while welcoming Adichie, said that as a mentor, she had continued to promote equality in terms of opportunities that inspired women across the globe.

“It is my pleasure to welcome one of Nigerian’s leading literary exports to the NSE for our digital Closing Gong Ceremony.

“Adichie is a testament that Nigeria is a reservoir of talent. She is a mentor who consistently promotes equal opportunity and inspires women to believe in their ability to achieve set goals.

“As an Exchange, our values align with the aspiration to create a world where gender is not a criterion for success, rather, the strength of a person’s character and their capacity to deliver in their engagements.

“We are, therefore, glad that our platforms offer opportunities to tell the Nigerian story of strength and brilliance as well as inspire the greatness in our unity and diversity,” Onyema said.

According to him, the Exchange has continued to demonstrate that gender equality is at the heart of its Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility, CSR, strategy, and it has continued to contribute to strengthening diversity within the market.

“In terms of increasing female participation across its operations, NSE has achieved a 1:1 women to men ratio across members of staff, and a female representation of 27 per cent on the National Council, the highest level of leadership of the NSE,” he said.

Adichie, on her part, said she was delighted to be at the event and hoped that her story would inspire someone to know that you can keep trying and keep doing.

“I often speak about how important it is for women to be included not because we are doing women a favour, but because it makes economic sense to tap into the wealth and knowledge that is often underutilised, under-recognised and under-celebrated.

“I must, therefore, commend the policies of the Exchange in this regard. Ultimately, 2020 has been a strange year and it is my hope that next year will bring more clarity, and I will be able to participate in this Closing Gong ceremony again, this time physically,” she said.

Recall that NSE collaborated with the International Finance Corporation, IFC, on the Nigeria2Equal programme to help its listed companies close gender gaps within their businesses and ensure women are more represented on the board of the companies.

Source: NAN

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Fidelity Bank stated this in a notice on Friday to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the general public, signed by its Company Secretary, Ezinwa Unuigboje.

It said the emergency board meeting would hold on March 2 at 9.30am, to consider and approve the company’s audited financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2019.

“Upon approval by the Board, the audited financial statements shall be presented to the Central Bank of Nigeria for approval and thereafter published in compliance with the provisions of the NSE Rule Book and other relevant provisions.

“The bank had earlier communicated to its insiders a closed period relating to trading in the shares of the bank from January 24 until 24 hours after its Audited Financial Statement for the year ended December 31 2019 is released to the public.

“The Nigerian Stock Exchange has been notified of this development,” said the notice.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s communication requires public companies to adopt one of two options.

The first option is to file fourth quarter unaudited financial statement (UFS) within 30 days after the quarter end and Annual Financial Statement (AFS) within 90 days after the year end.

The second option is not to file fourth quarter UFS but to file the AFS within 60 days after the year end.

Source: NAN

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Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N12.807 trillion rose by N77 billion or 0.60 per cent to close at N12.884 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index rose by 158.97 points or 0.60 per cent to close at 26,695.18 against 26,536.21 achieved on Friday.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Guinness Nigeria; Dangote Cement; PZ Cussons Nigeria and United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Access Bank.

Analysts at Afrinvest Ltd “expected the bullish performance to be sustained in the subsequent session however, we maintain our bearish outlook in the near term.”

Market breadth closed positive with 17 gainers’ and eight losers.

Guinness led the gainers’ table during the day, gaining N2.90 to close at N32.40 per share.

Dangote Cement came second with a gain of N2 to close at N142, while PZ Cusson garnered 50k to close at N5.57 per share.

United Bank for Africa appreciated by 40k to close at N7, while Access Bank also rose by 40k to close at N9.80 per share.

Conversely, FBN Holdings recorded the highest loss to lead the losers’ table, dropping by 25k to close at N6.25 per share.

UACN trailed with a loss of 15k to close at N8.75, while UPL dipped 11k to close at N1.21 per share.

Neimeith was down by 6k to close at 60k and Cornerstone also declined by 6k to close at 60k per share.

In the same vein, the volume of shares transacted grew by 9.77 per cent with an exchange of 170.52 million shares worth N2.05 billion in 2,700 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 155.35 million shares valued at N1.43 billion achieved in 2,773 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 41.16 million shares worth N396.95 million.

UBA followed with 29.24 million shares valued at N201.96 million, while Zenith Bank traded 25.59 million shares worth N479.81 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank sold 11.32 million shares valued at N332.86 billion, while Transcorp transacted 10.05 million shares worth N9.88 million at the trading.

Source: NAN

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