Features

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Investors are piling into African assets as if the coronavirus pandemic never happened. Even as questions hang over whether governments in the region will be able to sustainably address the economic and health consequences of the pandemic, stock markets, currencies and bonds have been on a tear since at least the beginning of May. Investors are looking past the risks as an unprecedented stimulus by governments and central banks…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — Donald Trump faced a dwindling set of options to address nationwide unrest, after a backlash erupted over the government’s violent dispersal of peaceful protests outside the White House, plunging the president into more election-year turmoil. For Trump and his conservative backers, his photo op late Monday in front of historic St. John’s Episcopal Church with Bible in hand was a show of strength — a symbolic move meant…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — The Nigerian government launched a bidding round for domestic companies aimed at bringing marginal oil fields to production. Africa’s largest crude producer is offering 57 onshore and shallow offshore permits, the Department of Petroleum Resources said on its website on Monday. Inviting bids from “indigenous companies and investors,” the statement didn’t specify when the fields will be allocated. The bidding round faces opposition from companies that had their permits…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — A South African court ruled that revised lockdown regulations implemented by the government as part of a phased reopening of the economy are unconstitutional and invalid, giving the state two weeks to amend them. The Gauteng Division of the High Court made the ruling earlier on Tuesday, Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams said in an emailed statement. The decision applies to all regulations excluding the closing of South Africa’s borders and the…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — Boris Johnson appealed to the U.K. to “move on” from the controversy over claims that his top adviser broke lockdown rules, as the prime minister tried to fight off a growing revolt from within his own party. Johnson said he was “sorry” for the “pain” and “anguish” the public had suffered since March, when he ordered sweeping restrictions on individual freedoms during the coronavirus pandemic. But he refused to…

NEW YORK (Capital Markets in Africa) — The U.S. finding that China has effectively stripped Hong Kong of its political autonomy leaves President Donald Trump with a difficult choice about how harshly to penalize Beijing. He could take a lighter touch with modest sanctions aimed at putting China on notice. Or he could unleash a far harsher approach that would curtail the former U.K. colony’s special trading status with the U.S., potentially imperiling its position…