Weeks come and go and are more or less alike on global markets. Extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures as ECB’s President surpassed investors’ expectations by cutting all three main interest rates and increasing monthly asset purchases to a higher-than-hoped 80 billion euros. The move triggered buying across emerging markets, which benefit from low borrowing costs in developed nations as investors seek higher returns in riskier assets. The excitement was quickly contained and the volatility maintained when during his press conference Draghi stated that the ECB was not planning further interest rate cuts sending stocks lower Thursday before a new rally on Friday as investors digested the news.

The Nigerian equities market reversed yesterday's bearish performance as the All Share Index appreciated 0.5% to close at 25,885.31 points; The GSE Composite Index lost 0.22 points to close at 1,970.62 representing a year-to-date loss of 1.22 %; The ZSE Industrial index went up by a marginal 0.01 points (0.01%) to close at 98.97 points

They say, no matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. The question is how long will winter last this year? Globally as the week went on, U.S. economic data and a rally in a range of commodities moderated risk appetites, while traders were cautiously waiting for U.S. unemployment numbers. A series of economic reports seems to suggest that the US economy is not doing as badly as the market originally thought…On Friday, the Labour Department announced that the U.S. generated 242,000 new jobs in February, beating economists’ expectations of 198,000 new jobs. This is a likely negative read-across for African markets as this growth reinforces the case for the Federal Reserve to further push its tightening policy, which traditionally has prompted an outflow of investments from emerging markets. Well, despite everything, green was the dress code this week on African markets.

Positive sentiments filtered through the Nigerian bourse this week as the index gained 6.57% (w/w); The ZSE Industrial index shed 0.02 points (0.02%) to close at 98.80 points; The NSE-20, NSE-25 and NSE All Share Index garnered 48.99pts, 68.32pts and 1.75pts to close at 3,981.47, 4,241.03 and 146.96 respectively; The GSE Composite Index also gained 0.93 points to close at 1,970.85 representing a year-to-date loss of 0.11 %.