By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said it will set up a functional and sustainable whistleblowing mechanism.

Suleiman Ndanusa, the Chairman of SEC disclosed this in Lagos Nigeria at the Maiden Meeting with Publishers and Chief Executive Officers of media organisations in Nigeria.

“We are going to establish a functional and sustainable Whistleblowing mechanism, and the Whistleblwoing mechanism is not just for the Market, we are already setting up a whistleblowing mechanism within the Commission” he said.

According to Ndanusa, if the SEC wants to ensure proper governance on those its regulating, it also wants to make sure they task themselves with the art of Corporate Governance within the Commission.

“Capital Market Stakeholders can whistleblow any Operator or even the SEC; in order to ensure that things are dealt with a lot easier” the SEC Chairman said.

This is coming on the heels of the announcement by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) early December 2012 that it would be launching a Whistleblowing Portal in 2013 to help it in its operations and ensure compliance of rules and regulations.

Whistleblowing is the disclosure by a person, usually an employee in a government agency or private enterprise, to the public or to those in authority, of mismanagement, corruption, illegality, or some other wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Equities Market Thursday closed on a positive note, as the NSE ASI appreciated by +0.13% to close at 32,772.73 points, compared with the depreciation of -0.16% recorded on Wednesday. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) return currently stands at 16.72%.

Analysts at INVESTMENT ONE Financial Services Limited said this positive turn was driven by a cumulative 125 points move by DANGCEM, UNILEVER, and UACN.

In the same vein, Market Capitalisation also appreciated by +0.13%, to close at N10.48trn (US$65.54bn), compared with the depreciation of -0.16% recorded Wednesday to close at N10.47trn (US$65.46bn).

According to them, Bond trading remains somewhat bearish. Yields at the Bond Market rose by 8 basis points on average with the 10-year benchmark Bond sliding the most as its yield posted the biggest expansion of 24 basis points.

“The 5, 7 and 10-year Bonds closed with yield of 10.94%, 11.05% and 11.10% respectively. These 3 benchmark Bonds grew back into the 11% yield range” the INVESTMENT ONE Analysts reported.

While they note that the Bond Market has been bearish over the last 7 sessions, they expect that the inclusion of FGN Bonds in the Barclay’s Bond-Index should spur interest from both Local Investors and Foreign Portfolio Investors.

While Afrinvest Analysts affirmed that the mixed sentiments in the banking sector led to slim gains for gainers in the sector, led by Unity Bank with a 3.6% mark-up, “other Companies on the list however recorded less than 1.0%. (Wema Bank, Access Bank, Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA). On the flip side Sterling Bank, UBN, GTBank and FCMB went south with losses ranging from 0.4% to 4.3%” Afrinvest Analysts reported.

The Afrinvest Report say Dangote Cement recovered with a 1.0% mark-up on the back of declining offers at current levels.

According to them, this trend could continue tomorrow. Lafarge Wapco, CCNN and Ashaka Cement however closed flat though skewed to the buy side at the close of proceedings.

While Transcorp and John Holt caved to selling pressure from attempts by participants to exit positions, dropping 3.1% and 5.0% respectively. “This bearish trend could linger into tomorrow’s session for John Holt while closing demand suggests that Transcorp could recover at lower levels” the report said.