By Abujah Racheal

Nigeria has recorded 87 new cases of the COVID-19, bringing the total infections to 1,182 , according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The NCDC, in a tweet via its official handle, said 33 of the new infections were recorded in Lagos, 18 in Borno, 12 in Osun, nine in Katsina, four each in Kano and Ekiti, three each in Edo and Bauchi and one in Imo.

“As at 11:55 pm April 25, there are 1,182 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Nigeria.  The country’s total deaths from the virus now stand at 35, while 222  have been treated and discharged,” it said.

The centre said as at 11:55 pm, April 25, Lagos has 689, FCT-138, Kano-77, Ogun-35, Osun-32, Gombe-30, Katsina-30, Borno-30, Edo-22, Oyo-18, Kwara-11, Akwa Ibom-11, Bauchi-11, Kaduna-10, Ekiti-8 and Ondo-4.

Others are Delta-six, Rivers-three, Jigawa-two, Enugu-two, Niger-two, Abia-two, Zamfara-two,  Sokoto-two, Benue-one, Anambra-one, Adamawa-one, Plateau-one and Imo-one.

87 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported;

33 in Lagos
18 in Borno
12 in Osun
9 in Katsina
4 in Kano
4 in Ekiti
3 in Edo
3 in Bauchi
1 in Imo

As at 11:55 pm 25th April there are 1182 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria.

Discharged: 222
Deaths: 35 pic.twitter.com/La5xzZZe2z

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 25, 2020

Sourced From: News Agency of Nigeria

Analysts have attributed the recent increase in investment recorded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to a lot of reasons, especially on the portfolio investors’ cash trapped in the country.

The MD/CEO, Capital Square Limited and the Acting Chairman Financial Group, Lagos Chambers Of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Obinna Anyanwu, explained that at the beginning of the pandemic, most portfolio investors had sold off their shares only to re-invest the funds when they could not repatriate the remaining liquidated investments.

Anyanwu said, “Before the lockdown, while the world was getting into COVID-19 crisis, the country experienced scarcity foreign exchange, and exchange rate began to go up as the naira was taking a heat from all the other major currencies.

But as that happened, the CBN reacted by subtly devaluation, but they were not clear about it, and this made the Dollar to go up from N360 to N380, which created some level of uncertainty in the market, and a couple of these funds had to exit.

“However, these funds that have gotten out of trading, which were withdrawn by the portfolio investors made the exchange to move up at that point in time.

Secondly, the remaining of those funds that they were unable to move out of the country, as they were stocked in the country was reinvested by these portfolio investors since they could not get out of the country so that they can still remain players in the market.”

He pointed out that at this period, that no economy in the world can yield returns on investment like the Nigerian economy, explaining that the global economy is generally affected.

Commenting on local investors, the financial analyst noted that there is some speculation that a few more funds came into the country due to the quantitative easing that was happening globally, adding that those money were plunged into the stock market since there is high rate of returns in this economy.

“Again internally, some Nigerians that might have held their money in current accounts that are also looking for returns may have probably given mandate to their portfolio investors, assets managing companies they use out there, and also security trading companies to get some stocks for them, which has automatically boosted investment,” he stressed.

According to a recent NSE report, a total turnover of 1.495 billion shares worth N12.894 billion in 20,982 deals were traded on by investors on the floor of the exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.440 billion shares valued at N19.932 billion that exchanged hands in week of review in 18,918 deals.

“The Financial Services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.238 billion shares valued at N8.424 billion traded in 12,835 deals; thus contributing 82.82 percent and 65.33 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.” The report stated.

The report also revealed that the healthcare industry followed with 72.953 million shares worth N386.138 million in 465 deals, while the third place was the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 48.567 million shares worth N1.904 billion in 2,611 deals.

Sourced From: Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics

Iran’s health officials Saturday raised fears of a “fresh outbreak” of coronavirus cases in their country, which has paid the deadliest price in the Middle East from the pandemic.

As the predominantly Shiite country marked the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a day later than much of the Muslim world, another 76 fatalities were declared, raising Iran’s official death toll to 5,650.

Iran has in phases since April 11 allowed the reopening of a number of businesses that were closed as part of measures to curb coronavirus (COVID-19).

The spread of the disease has slowed since the start of April, but Alireza Zali, the anti-coronavirus coordinator for the capital, on Saturday criticised “hasty reopenings”.

They could “create new waves of sickness in Tehran and complicate efforts to bring the epidemic under control”, he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said Iran has now recorded 89,328 cases of COVID-19, including 1,134 over the past 24 hours, since its first case in February.

The number of Iranian casualties is widely thought to be much higher, however.

Jahanpour reiterated that social distancing and hygiene measures to guard against the novel coronavirus needed to remain in place.

The ministry’s infectious diseases department head, Mohammad Mehdi Gouya, warned of “signs of a fresh outbreak” in provinces such as Gilan and Mazandaran in the north and Qom in central Iran “where we made great efforts to control the epidemic”.

Iran, already weakened by tough US sanctions, has struggled to contain the virus outbreak since reporting its first cases on February 19 — two deaths in the Shiite holy city of Qom.

Sourced From: Vanguard News