…As Global Markets-Stocks take U.S. inflation spike in stride , oil rally; dollar on defensive***

Some blue chips maintained upward movement on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday with Nigerian Breweries leading the gainers’ chart.

Nigerian Breweries led gainers’ table with a gain of N2.40 to close at N131.40 per share.

Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N1.50 to close at N259.90, while Lafarge Africa gained N1 to close at N52 per share.

Stanbic IBTC also grew by N1 to close at N46, while Dangote Sugar Refinery added N1 to close at N22 per share.

Consequently, the All-Share Index appreciated further by N156 billion or 1.03 per cent to close at 42,604.40 against 42,171.80 achieved on Wednesday.

In the same vein, the market capitalization, which opened at N15.133 trillion rose by N156 billion or 1.03 per cent to close at N15.289 trillion.

On the other hand, CAP posted the highest price loss to lead the laggards’ table, shedding N1.90 to close at N36.95 per share.

NASCON trailed with a loss of 75k to close at N20, while Union Bank of Nigeria was down by 30k to close at N7.55 per share.

Etranzact depreciated by 25k to close at N4.75, while Caverton also declined by 25k to close at N2.60 per share.

Also, the volume of shares traded closed higher by 18.14 per cent as investors bought and sold 615.18 million shares worth N6.28 billion in 5,904 deals.

This was lower than 520.74 million shares valued at N4.72 billion exchanged in 5,694 deals on Wednesday.

Multiverse was the most active with a turnover of 87.10 million shares worth N31.36 million.

Skye Bank followed with an account of 65.57 million shares valued at N73.79 million, while Access Bank traded 59.03 million shares worth N766.38 million.

FCMB Group sold 56.14 million shares valued at N158.29 million, while FBN Holdings traded 39.41 million shares worth N499.04 million.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks gained on Thursday after Wall Street brushed aside strong U. S. inflation data .

They surged in a move that also saw the dollar pinned at two-week lows even as Treasury yields jumped in anticipation of more rapid U.S. interest rate hikes.

In commodities, Brent crude futures were up to 65.06 dollars per barrel as U.S. crude stocks rose less than expected.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose one per cent.

Australian stocks climbed 0.9 per cent and South Korea’s KOSPI added 1.1 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei advanced 1.3 per cent following three successive days of losses that took it to a four-month low the previous day.

Wall Street surged on Wednesday, with the Dow up one per cent and the S&P 500 climbing 1.34 per cent, as investors shrugged off the stronger-than-expected-inflation-data and snapped up shares of Facebook, Amazon.com and Apple .

U.S. consumer prices rose more than forecast in January as Americans paid more for gasoline, rental accommodation and healthcare, further raising inflation concerns.

All these raised the prospect of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates more than initially expected.

That drove U.S. Treasury yields on most maturities higher on Wednesday, with those on benchmark 10-year notes hitting a four-year high.

Dot plots represent Fed officials’ expectations for interest rate hikes.

The dollar index against a basket of currencies slipped 0.25 per cent to 88.892 after losing more than 0.6 per cent overnight despite the strong inflation number.

The recovery in broader risk sentiment was seen weighing on the dollar, which had gained during the market turmoil earlier in the month.

The U.S. currency has been buffeted by a variety of setbacks this year, including prospects Washington might pursue a weak dollar strategy.

The dollar stretched overnight losses against the Japanese yen to touch a 15-month low of 106.420, having declined more than 2 per cent so far this week , causing the Nikkei to underperform its global peers.

The euro extended gains to reach a 10-day high of 1.2473 dollars after surging 0.8 per cent the previous day.

The South African rand traded at 11.72 per dollar and near a 2-1/2-year high of 11.66 set overnight after the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said it would remove President Jacob Zuma from office.

The Australian dollar added to the previous day’s rally and reached a 10-day top of 0.7946 dollars.