The Markets | - Part 160

Stock Traders Scarce in Kenya as Poll Crisis Clouds Outlook

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Traders are deserting Kenya’s stock market, a star performer earlier this year, as the unresolved crisis around the country’s presidential election discourages foreign investors. Volumes traded on the Nairobi stock exchange have slumped to the lowest this year, dropping to less than 46 million shares in the week ended Oct. 6 from as high as 285 million in June. Values have also dropped, with $870,000 of shares traded Thursday,…

South African Yield Closing in on Turkey Shows Downgrade Fears

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The shrinking yield discount on South African dollar bonds relative to Turkish debt is a sign investors are pricing in another credit downgrade for Africa’s biggest economy, according to Standard Bank Group Ltd. The 10-year spread has narrowed to 19 basis points, from 120 basis points in January. While Turkey’s yield has dropped amid demand for emerging-market assets, South Africa’s tracked sideways as political and fiscal challenges mount. “The…

Hive Switches From Mining Gold to Bitcoin — Surges Six-Fold

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Frank Giustra, the Canadian mining maverick who amassed a fortune building what would become one of the world’s largest gold companies, is digging for another kind of gold: cryptocurrencies. The company he’s backed, Vancouver-based Hive Blockchain Technologies Inc., is among the first publicly traded stocks to provide exposure to crypto mining — the vast data crunching needed to verify the blockchain and the volatile currencies they produce like bitcoin and…

Egypt’s $18 Billion Debt Inflows Seen Peaking as Rate Cut Looms

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Foreign investors may be finally curbing their enthusiasm for Egyptian local-currency debt. After almost a year and $18 billion of purchases, some investors have allocated all they can to Egypt. The inflows from foreign funds are still growing, but the pace has slowed to an average of 2 percent a week since mid-August, down from 8 percent, as policy makers signaled they may lower record interest rates once inflation eases. The surge…

Bitcoin Breaches New Milestone by Smashing Past $5,000 Mark

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bitcoin surged to a fresh record Thursday as the enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies showed little sign of abating. The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 8.4 percent and was trading 7.9 percent higher at $5,209 as of 12:34 p.m. in London, resuming gains after a one-day break. As recently as December, bitcoin was trading at less than $1,000 dollars. Bitcoin tumbled below $4,000 last month after China’s central bank banned initial…

South Sudan Targets Doubling Oil Output in 2018, First Refining

Posted on by The Editorial Team

SOUTH SUDAN (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Sudan targets more than doubling oil production to 280,000 barrels per day next year as it restarts output that was suspended at some fields because of an almost four-year civil war. The government is seeking to restore production to about 150,000 barrels per day by the end of 2017, from 130,000 barrels, Petroleum Minister Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth told an energy industry conference in the capital, Juba, on Wednesday….

Upheaval Sends Kenya’s Yields Higher Than Ghana’s for First Time

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bond investors are getting worried about the political upheaval in Kenya. Opposition leader Raila Odinga’s decision to pull out of an election rerun on Tuesday, which threatens a constitutional crisis, spurred the yield on the nation’s dollar bonds due 2024 to rise 13 basis points. The rate climbed to 6.48 percent as of 2:50 p.m. in Nairobi, above the yield on Ghana’s Eurobonds due 2023 for the first since 2014. Kenyan notes have lost…

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