…As FG offers 2, 3 year savings bonds at 10.34%, 11.34% for June***

The bulls resurfaced at the nation’s bourse on Monday after 11 straight days of bearish trend, with some blue chips recording price appreciation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigerian Breweries led the bulls appreciating by N3 to close at N106 per share.

Further analysis of the gainers’ table indicates that Guaranty Trust Bank followed with N1.75 to close at N40.40, while Mobil Oil rose by N1.50 to close N166 per share.

Zenith International Bank increased by 50k to close at N26, FBN Holdings garnered 35k to close at N10.50 per share.

Specifically, the All-Share Index rose by 130.81 points or 0.36 per cent to close at 36,947.10 compared to 36,816.29 achieved on Friday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N13. 335 trillion, inched N48 billion or 0.36 per cent to close at N13.383 trillion.

Market analysts were optimistic that the month of June would likely be positive compared to negative trend that heralded the month of May.

Presco recorded the highest price to lead the laggards’ chart, shedding N3.75 to close at N71.25 per share.

International Breweries trailed with a loss of N1.20 to close at N39, while PZ declined by N1.05 to close at N20.80 per share.

Flour Mills was down by N1 to close at N30.10, while Cadbury also shed N1 to close at N11.50 per share.

However, the volume of shares traded closed lower with a total of 314.43 million shares worth N7.03 billion exchanged in 6,016 deals.

This was in contrast with 516.83 million shares valued at N7.19 billion transacted in 5,031 deals on Friday.

Guaranty Trust Bank was the most active stock during the day, trading 67.16 million shares worth N2.68 billion.

Sovereign Trust Insurance followed with an account of 33.01 million shares valued at N8.89million, while FBN Holdings traded 19.59 million shares worth N202.21 million.

Diamond Bank exchanged 17.31 million shares valued at N23.69 million, while Zenith Bank sold 15.13 million shares valued at N385.69 million.

In the meantime, the Federal Government on Monday offered for subscription two-year savings bond at 10.34 per cent and three-year savings bond at 11.34 per cent, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has said.

According to the offer circular obtained from the DMO website, the two-year bond will be due in June 2020, while the three-year bond will be due in June 2021.

It, however, did not state how much was offered, but added that the maximum subscription was N50 million at N1,000 per unit, subject to minimum subscription of N5,000 and in multiples of N1,000.

The website said that the bond was fully backed by the full faith and credit of the Federal Government, with quarterly coupon payments to bondholders.

The savings bond issuance is expected to help finance the nation’s budget deficit.

It is to also part of the Federal Government’s programme targeted at the lower income earners to encourage savings and also earn more income (interest), compared to their savings accounts with banks.

The circular also said that the offer will close on Friday.