The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Thursday.
EVENTS:
Mauritius gives an update on 2016 GDP growth, and forecast for 2017 growth
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian shares turned lower on Thursday after earlier briefly nudging up to near two-year highs, while the dollar
benefited from waning expectations that the European Central Bank was poised to end its easy policy.
WORLD OIL PRICES
Oil prices were steady on Thursday, supported by falling crude output in Libya and declining gasoline stocks in the
United States, although bloated U.S. crude inventories are still weighing on markets.
SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS
South Africa’s rand and bonds extended losses on Wednesday, amid speculation of an imminent cabinet shake-up that could see Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan removed, but stocks inched up.
NIGERIA BILLS
Nigeria plans to sell 234.89 billion naira ($765.99 million) of short-dated treasury bills at an auction on April 6, the
central bank said on Wednesday.
NIGERIA INFRASTRUCTURES
A consortium led by General Electric submitted the only bid for a Nigerian railway concession project worth
around $2 billion for two lines connecting northern cities to others in the south, a procurement process adviser said
on Wednesday.
NIGERIA EUROBOND
Nigeria raised $500 million by issuing a 15-year Eurobond on Wednesday with a yield of 7.5 percent, the finance ministry said, helping it plug a huge budget deficit in Africa’s largest economy.
KENYA MARKETS
The Kenyan shilling weakened slightly on Wednesday due to pressure from oil importers and manufacturers buying
dollars to meet end month obligations, traders said.
KENYA VIOLENCE
Kenyan herdsmen burnt down a luxury safari lodge owned by a white conservationist on Wednesday, a neighbouring ranch owner said, the latest attack to take place in the drought-stricken Laikipia area.
GHANA CENTRAL BANK
The governor of Ghana’s central bank, Nashiru Issahaku, resigned on Wednesday for personal reasons, he told Reuters, just as a new government seeks to stabilize the West African country’s finances.
GHANA COCOA
The $1.8 billion syndicated loan Ghana procured to purchase cocoa for the 2016-17 season “is all gone” and the country must seek more funding to make purchases for the rest of the season, the new chairman of industry regulator Cocobod said.
UGANDA MARKETS
The Ugandan shillings weakened marginally on Wednesday, due to demand for dollars from firms in the
energy and other sectors.
RWANDA RATES
Rwanda’s central bank held its benchmark repo rate RWREPO=ECI at 6.25 percent on Wednesday, governor John
Rwangombwa said.
RWANDA AVIATION
Rwanda’s airline will start three weekly flights to London’s Gatwick airport on May 26 and it expects to exceed one
million passengers on all its routes in the next three to four years, Chief Executive John Mirenge said on Monday.
TANZANIA MINING
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has ordered a special audit of mining companies to determine if they pay their
fair share of taxes to the East African country.
CONGO SECURITY
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Wednesday that U.N. peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are aiding a government that is “corrupt and preys on its citizens” as negotiations for the mission’s renewal continue.
SOMALIA POLITICS
Somalia’s 275-member parliament passed the proposed list of cabinet ministers of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire by a vote of 224 to 15, state radio said on Wednesday.
